Stock Building has cut 1,000 N.C. jobs

RALEIGH -- Stock Building Supply has laid off at least 1,000 employees in North Carolina during the past 14 months, the Raleigh company's president said today.

It's the latest indicator of how a national housing crunch is pinching local companies.

"When housing is talked about, I think people strictly think about homebuilders. ... There's an exact trickle down effect when their business is impacted," said Joe Appelmann, president of Raleigh-based Stock, during a media conference call discussing the gloomy state of the state's housing industry.

The call came less than three months after Stock's British parent, Wolseley Plc, said it would slashing 3,000 Stock jobs and close 86 facilities in six states.

Stock now employs about 2,100 people in this state, including 1,100 in the Triangle.

The company, like other construction suppliers, is struggling with the biggest housing slump in more than six decades.

When they announced the cuts in October, company executives declined to offer a geographic breakdown of the layoffs.

Appelmann on Thursday provided insight into the depth of the company's cuts in this state.

In the past 14 months, the company has had to shut 10 facilities in the state and lay off at least 1,000 employees, or 35 percent of the company's work force in North Carolina, he said.

To put that into context, Appelmann said, Stock has slashed 9,000 jobs nationwide, or 52 percent of its total work force, since fall 2006.

The conference call, hosted by the N.C. Home Builders Association, was meant to push Congress to take action to spur recovery in housing and the overall economy.

Appelmann said Stock's $225 million restructuring is "pretty much behind us."

But he added: "If a stimulus package doesn't hit the industry, and if we continue to see the industry move further down, we will have to adjust our business."

jack.hagel@newsobserver.com or 919-829-8917