Bass Pro Shops to lay off up to 500 nationwide

Bass Pro Shops plans to lay off up to 500 employees nationwide, including fewer than 60 at its corporate headquarters in Springfield and at a Nixa-based fabrication shop, in a cost-saving move.

Vice President of Human Resources Paul Shore said the layoffs affect a combination of full- and part-time employees, including an average of six employees at each of the company’s 74 locations around the United States. He declined to provide a timeline.

“Those actions, whether it’s one person, 10 or 20, we take those matters very seriously,” Shore said, adding the company offered severance and benefit continuation for impacted associates. “These changes don’t reflect any fundamental changes in the company.”

Shore said employment at the Nixa shop, which performs woodworking and metalworking operations, historically fluctuates depending on the number of projects in development.

“In the Ozarks area, we employ a little less than 6,000 people,” Shore said. “In the last three years, we’ve added 2,300 positions in the Ozarks, not to mention the construction we’ve got going on at Big Cedar, Top of the Rock and all those opportunities for folks in the construction industry to be part of our growth.”

Shore said the company currently has 22,000 employees, and eight new Bass Pro stores are set to open this year, including one this week in Tampa, Fla. Shore estimates each store employs 250 to 300 workers depending on its size and whether a restaurant is attached.

The company most recently laid off about 90 workers in January 2009, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.