Laid off from Performance Food Group.

What Performance Food Group layoffs have meant for employees

If a closing notice from PFG or one of its units reaches you, the pay tied to your last day deserves as much attention as any severance. When PFG's board voted in January 2008 to shut its broadline center in Magee, Mississippi, its January 2008 8-K counted stay bonuses alongside severance pay among the costs it expected. If a notice comes with a stay bonus, consider asking what date it requires and whether starting a new job ahead of that date forfeits it. If you've been offered another job and hold a notice or package that ties pay or benefits to a stated last day, that day is the one to compare against any bonus, severance or benefit that depends on staying.

The cuts PFG announced in the pandemic's first weeks came as one combined number. PFG counted furloughed and eliminated positions together in its April 13 release and again in its May 4 results, so a furlough and a permanent cut look alike in the company's figures. PFG also shared associates with grocery retailers to keep shelves stocked and deferred a quarter of senior management's base pay, the April release says, while the May results describe restaurant, school and theater customers that had reduced or discontinued operations. If you hear that your position is being furloughed rather than cut, consider asking for that in writing, along with any return date or condition attached to it. If you're placed with a partner company for a while, as more than 1,100 PFG associates were with grocery retailers in April 2020, a short note on who pays you, and for how long, is worth requesting.

The distributors PFG bought arrived with WARN histories of their own. Eby-Brown, Reinhart, Core-Mark and Cheney Bros. account for twelve of the 17 filings our WARN tracker ties to PFG, made between 2012 and 2020. PFG bought Eby-Brown in 2019 and completed its Reinhart purchase on December 30 that year, the May 4 results note. It closed the Core-Mark merger in September 2021, its Core-Mark closing 8-K says, and bought Cheney Brothers on October 8, 2024, according to its fiscal 2026 10-K. Reinhart's 2016 Jacksonville closing, for instance, came with a four-month handoff of its customers there to other distributors ahead of the planned shutdown, the Jax Daily Record reported. One more 2020 Florida filing came from GWB, LLC, doing business as Grand Western, a company named on PFG’s subsidiary list. That list carries Cheney Bros., Core-Mark and Reinhart Foodservice as separate companies too, and Green Rabbit's 2025 notices went out as Vistar Green Rabbit, so the name on a notice can be the unit's instead of PFG's. If you're at one of those units, the tracker is worth searching under its own name along with PFG's.

Green Rabbit came to PFG in a purchase that its 2024 annual report said added three warehouses and effectively doubled PFG's fulfillment facilities. That same letter credits targeted acquisitions, alongside organic growth, with expanding the business, and it presented online fulfillment as one of the areas where its Vistar segment grew. For work that ended in California, the state's rules on claims are at California unemployment benefits; Florida, where five of the filings were made, has its own at Florida unemployment benefits. If a severance offer has reached you, negotiating severance has the terms worth pressing on, and if you were covered by a PFG or unit health plan, how COBRA works explains the continuation rules.

A sourced history of Performance Food Group layoffs

• August 2025, Vistar Green Rabbit's Visalia closing notices

  Green Rabbit, the online-order fulfillment business PFG bought in fiscal 2024 according to its 2024 annual report, gave notice August 25 that it would close two Visalia sites October 31, covering 92 and 15 jobs, California’s WARN report shows.

• April and May 2020, pandemic furloughs and eliminated positions

  PFG said in an April 13 release that it had furloughed or eliminated about 3,000 positions to protect its long-term finances, and its May 4 results raised the count to about 3,500.

• February 2009, purchasing jobs cut as buying moves to UniPro

  PFG said it would cut 98 jobs at Progressive Group Alliance, its Henrico, Virginia purchasing organization, from April 17 after outsourcing buying to UniPro Foodservice, and SeafoodSource reported severance and outplacement services for those affected.

• January 2008, Magee, Mississippi broadline center closing

  PFG's board voted January 9 to close the Magee, Mississippi broadline distribution center around March 10, and its January 2008 8-K listed severance pay and stay bonuses among the one-time costs it expected.

What to do if you're laid off from Performance Food Group

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Performance Food Group's biggest hubs: California, Florida. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Performance Food Group's hub states run: California, Florida, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.