Trunk Club Is Cutting 250 Positions And Closing Its Goose Island Facility

By Stephen Gossett in News on Jun 29, 2016 4:54PM

Facebook / Trunk Club

Trunk Club announced plans on Tuesday to close its fulfillment center located on Goose Island—a move that will including cutting 250 full- and part-time positions. The fashion service will integrate operations into Nordstrom fulfillment and distribution centers, according to a press release. The Goose Island facility is expected to close by August 2017.

Trunk Club was launched as a venture-backed start-up in Chicago in 2009. Customers choose clothes with the help of a personal stylist, try on outfits either at home or at a River North location and keep what they decide works. Seattle-based Nordstrom acquired the business in 2014 for a reported $350 million. At the time of the purchase, CEO Brian Splay said the company was on track to double revenue over the previous year, but that the company was still only "barely profitable."

Splay said in the statement on Tuesday:

"While our space at Goose Island has served us well, we realize we're going to outgrow it soon. We decided this was the right time to integrate Trunk Club orders into the Nordstrom fulfillment network, which will allow us to share more of their inventory and better serve our customers with a wider mix of merchandise."

Nordstrom said it would work to help employees find positions at the Trunk Club Chicago "clubhouse" or at Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores in the area.

Trunk Club fulfillment operations will move to the Cedar Rapids, IA facility that already fulfills orders for Trunk Club for Women, which launched in the fall of 2015. Integration of all Trunk Club orders is scheduled to begin near the end of 2016.

There are 545 remaining Trunk Club employees in the area, including stylists and staff at the River North corporate headquarters. Those jobs will not be affected by the closure, Emily Sterkin, Public Affairs Manager at Nordstrom, told Chicagoist.