Page 6 - July 2024 Issue

Review
Review Feature

Medifast leaves Ridgely, lays o 62 employees

Rapid Response team o ers help, resources

By Connie Connolly According to an email from a public relations rm retained
by Medifast, the ful llment and distribution plant closed
RIDGELY – Medifast has closed down its Ridgely plant, May 9, 2024, with “separations” of 62 employees starting July
and a team of folks from local, state and federal agencies are 8 and completing July 31. ose employees are expected to
helping the last group of employees nd work and navigate have a severance pay agreement.
next steps.
“ is is the third time we’ve been (at Medifast) in 18
A “rapid response” team was quickly coordinated by months,” Schneckenburger said. “ ey had a rapid response
Daniel Schneckenburger, executive director of Upper Shore for their night shi , … a second rapid response for their
Workforce Investment Board (USWIB). e Board provides swing shi , and now we’re doing a third one, where the
career and training services supporting the ve Mid-Shore remainder of their day shi workers are being let go, and
counties of Caroline, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Talbot and then they’re going to close the facility.”
Dorchester. USWIB is based at Chesapeake College in Wye
Mills. Medifast’s parent company Jason Pharmaceuticals led a
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Noti cation May 9
“Our job is to say, … ‘How can we assist you in getting regarding the Ridgely plant layo . e WARN Act requires
back on your feet, so you don’t have to sell your house, you 60 days noti cation in advance of plant closings and mass
don’t have to move, and you can just move on with a new layo s.
employer,’” Schneckenburger said.
Schneckenburger speculated that Medifast had encountered
“economic headwinds.”
“Frankly, even a er we were there once and twice, they kept
saying, ‘Well, that’s it; we think we’re the right size now,” he
said. “ is was just a very slow process.”

According to a nancial report issued by Medifast, Inc.,
rst quarter 2024 revenue decreased 50% in one year. Gross
pro t decreased 48% in the same time period, and income
from operations decreased 85%. Medifast trades as MED on
the New York Stock Exchange.
With two previous downsizings, the last batch of employees
may have started putting out feelers before the plant closed.
Or they may have decided to see what a severance package
e Medifast ful llment and distribution plant at 601 Sunrise Avenue would look like, Schneckenburger said.
in Ridgely has closed its operations and laid o its last group of e rapid response team, made up of o cials from USWIB,
employees. Caroline County Economic Development, the Maryland
departments of Commerce and Labor, the American Job
Below: e parking lot at Medifast is empty on June 6.
Center, Chesapeake College and others, is working directly
with Medifast and is helping this last group of former
Medifast employees (who are Maryland residents and mainly
residents of Caroline County) to nd work, gure out
COBRA bene ts and access job retraining, if that’s what they
desire. “ ey have almost a 6-month window to engage with
us,” he said.

State and local e orts to help the laid-o employees to nd
other work, however, began even before the operation shut
down.

6