Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Kathleen Moser of the Biltmore Co. contacted me today to respond to a note written by a blog reader here stating that the Biltmore planned an extensive cutback at the start of 2009. Moser, a company spokeswoman, says the Biltmore’s cuts after the holiday season will be a seasonal lay-off.
Moser said she couldn’t put an exact number on how many lay-offs were to come. And she said she’d have to refer back to past year’s numbers to put the upcoming lay-off in context, something she couldn’t easily do because she’s in New York City this week helping decorate the set of Good Morning America. The company evaluates business and makes the cuts. Some years, fewer people are let go than in other years, she said.
Moser stressed that the lay-offs were seasonal. The Biltmore Estate’s busiest time of the year is the holiday season that starts this week, and the company “staffs way up” to handle the big crowds, she said. After the holidays, the company cuts back. The Biltmore Company has experienced a “softening” of business due to the down economy, she said, but is planning a number of special events in the upcoming winter months that the company hopes will draw even more visitors. The Biltmore Estate is one of Western North Carolina’s top tourist attractions.
Moser said there are no planned lay-offs at the Biltmore Company’s downtown headquarters office. Moser also took issue with the commenter’s statement that “many of Biltmore’s ventures have been failures,” but we didn’t delve into that issue.
Moser’s message — the January lay-offs will be seasonal in nature.
So there’s the official Biltmore Company response. Anybody else want to weigh in? Leave a comment here, or email me at [email protected].
I work year round as a full-time employee for the Biltmore Company. I am not in management or administration and I am NOT being laid off. No one in my department is being laid off.
westashevillian, thanks for your note.
hmmm, the answer is: no.
A friend of mine was laid off from her job at the Biltmore Estate a couple of months ago because, she said, it had been really slow over the summer. She had worked there year-round for years. Anybody ask about layoffs before now?
No doubt Biltmore’s business is hurting since they really don’t have many exciting new offerings for tourists or locals. The Biltmore House itself s a mature tourist destination that will always draw visitors. The estate’s hotel, restaurants and events are established. In this economy I’d guess they have hit a plateau and revenues are suffering as people cut back on tourism and corporate events are curtailed and downsized. Biltmore House has always had a lot of seasonal workers at Christmas since it is their biggest season, but they also have a large staff to run and maintain everything. It is true that they had a lot of administrative people. Over the last two years Biltmore certainly spent big bucks to re-brand itself; and the ventures into home products, retail and partnerships had limited success. Like any business, they are looking at ways to drastically cut costs so downsizing full-time permanent employees is what they are going to have to do. The family and management of the company is conservative and tightly controlled, so it will be difficult to get accurate information from them about job cuts or the current state of their business. Especially so while the corporate spokesperson is busy decorating a tv set in New York City!
Good job with this web blog! You would never get local business news like this in the Citizen-Times!