The source adds the firings took place on Monday and “affected a number of senior workers, including some supervisors.”
CEO Henry Juszkiewicz stated the reductions are “part of broad initiative throughout the company to prepare for our refinancing,” which calls for the company to retire $375 million in five-year senior secured notes by July 23.
Juszkiewicz further pointed out that Gibson Custom operation still employs around 100 people, although not all of them are based in Nashville.
The source also noted: “Juszkiewicz is in spring cleaning mode because Gibson’s financial results likely won’t convince a lot of backers to step forward. Trade publication Debtwire reported this week that Gibson in the last three months of 2017 produced $18.7 million in so-called restricted EBITDA – which excludes the company’s holdings in Japanese electronics company TEAC – on sales of $256 million. Those numbers were down 45% and 22% from the figures of the year before, Debtwire wrote.”
The CEO previously stated: “We have been monetizing assets like stock holdings, real property and business segments that could not achieve the level of success we expected. By monetizing these assets, we can reduce debt and generate funds to contribute to business segments that are thriving. It is important to our business to get back to the financial success we had to achieve the best financial terms in the refinancing of our company.”
