Pacer cuts jobs, shutters facilities

Pacer cuts jobs, shutters facilities A perfect storm of rising fuel prices, lower cargo volume and bad weather that led to disappointing first quarter financials have forced Pacer International Inc. to cut jobs.
   The Concord-based third-party logistics and freight transportation provider said Monday that despite what the company sees as recent signs of improving demand, it would cut 73 jobs and shutter four company facilities. The planned closures of facilities in Livermore, Calif., Detroit, Mich., and two unnamed cities in Arizona and Georgia will take place before June.
   Last week the firm said that softer domestic intermodal and truck volumes in the first quarter caused a 43.9 percent drop in net income to $7.8 million, from $13.9 million during the year-earlier period.
   Quarterly operating income dropped 41 percent to $14.4 million while revenue declined 0.9 percent to $465.1 million.
   'The softer domestic market impacted the company's rail brokerage, trucking and domestic Stacktrain operations and was partially offset by increased wholesale auto and wholesale international volumes,' Mike Uremovich, Pacer's chairman and chief executive officer, said last week.
   Uremovich added that the quarter's results include $1.8 million in severance costs and restructuring charges, and a $1.8 million write-off of loan fees associated with the refinancing of Pacer's credit facility.
   He indicated at the time that options such as job cuts were possible.