May 16--SCHUYLKILL HAVEN -- About 65 people will be out of work as another county business shuts its doors.

The decision to close the Phillips-Van Heusen clothing warehouse along Route 61 near Schuylkill Haven, a fixture in the area since the early 1970s, was made last week, according to company CFO Michael Shaffer, New York.

"The economy really forced our hand," Shaffer said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. "This one was especially hard for us."

Schuylkill Economic Development Corp. President Frank Zukas called the warehouse closing "an inevitability."

"We're fortunate it stayed open and operational for as long as it did," Zukas said Friday afternoon. "This is part of the process of change. You've got to pick up the pieces."

Phillips-Van Heusen, which manufactures clothing brands like Izod, Arrow, Bass and others, joins a growing list of companies to close Schuylkill County operations in the past year.

Value City, Transcontinental Direct, Waldenbooks, Claire's and Steve & Barry's have closed county locations, while Precisionaire, Auburn, chose not to rebuild following an arson.

The Phillips-Van Heusen closing, however, feels a bit different, Zukas said.

"It's an internationally-known company, so that hurts a little bit more," he said.

Shaffer said this is the second Phillips-Van Heusen plant or warehouse closing this year, with about six locations in the U.S. still up and running.

"I don't foresee other closings," he said.

A Van Heusen outlet store at Vanity Fair Outlet Center, Reading, will remain open, Shaffer added.

He also said employees were notified of the closing last week. Shaffer called those employees "a tremendous group of people."

Phillips-Van Heusen Chairman and CEO Emanuel Chirico painted a bleak financial picture in a letter to stockholders posted on the company's Web site.

"Retail's operating income declined almost 60 percent from the prior year ... operating income was $35 million, a disappointing 4 percent of revenues," Chirico said in the letter.

The letter also predicted the fate of the Schuylkill Haven warehouse.

Listed under "cost-cutting" measures the company will take this year is "reducing warehousing capacity in line with current sales expectations."

The closing will only add to the highest county unemployment rate in 13 years. Unemployment reached 9.8 percent in March 2009, the most recent figures available, according to the state Department of Labor and Industry.

The number of unemployed has grown each month since November 2007.

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