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Reynolds and Reynolds acknowledges recent layoffs

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer Updated 1:11 PM Wednesday, June 17, 2009

KETTERING — Reynolds and Reynolds, a provider of management software and services to auto dealerships, has laid off employees in the past week, while trying to recruit others, a company spokesman said today, June 17.

“We have had a handful of reductions over the last week or so,” said Thomas Schwartz, spokesman for Reynolds.

He declined to quantify the number of layoffs, other than to say they fell short of being “mass” layoffs. On Wednesday, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services “WARN” (Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification) Web site had no recent notice from Reynolds.

Under WARN requirements, businesses must alert the state when a facility is closed for more than 6 months, or when 50 or more employees lose their jobs during any 30-day period at a single site of employment.

Most of the recent layoffs occurred at the company’s Technical Assistance Center, which takes calls and questions from Reynolds customers, Schwartz said. He said the center’s call volume has dropped, a change he attributed to improvements in Reynolds software and the closing of auto dealerships nationally over time.

Bankrupt General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are shuttering thousands of auto dealerships. The seasonally adjusted auto sales rate fell to 9.2 million in May from 14.2 million a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data released earlier this month.

“Really, we’ve been doing this for almost a year, at least, since the economy has turned for sure,” Schwartz said. “We’ve been taking a very measured approach.”

At the same time, Reynolds is seeking to recruit 30 or 40 people for its campus off County Line Road, he said.

That campus has a work force of about 1,400 today, down about 100 employees from a year ago, Schwartz has said. He attributes that shrinkage not only to economic conditions, but to transfers to Houston, where Reynolds’ parent company, Universal Computer Systems, is based.

UCS acquired Reynolds nearly three years ago.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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