A Farmington-based manufacturer of protein powder and other exercise supplements appears to have abruptly shut its doors.
Employees of Ultimate Nutrition arrived Monday morning to the company’s Hyde Road headquarters to find the doors locked. A sign taped to the door told workers they had been terminated effective Aug. 17. “We wish you the best of luck in your further endeavors,” the letter concluded.
An employee who spoke to a reporter but did not wish to be identified for fear of hurting future employment prospects said the company has between 100 and 200 employees across locations in Farmington, New Britain and Florida.
“Everyone left Friday and had no clue,” the worker said. “The signs went up Saturday, word got around, and everyone started texting each other.”
Attempts Monday to reach the company and its owner, Brian Rubino, were unsuccessful.
A number of phone extensions at the head office were either full or not accepting messages. Meanwhile, the company’s Facebook and Instagram accounts appeared to have been deactivated. Its Twitter account, active in the past few days, had not tweeted any information about the layoffs.
Ultimate Nutrition had not filed a WARN notice with the state Department of Labor as of Monday, which is legally required if a company has 100 or more full-time workers and plans to lay off at least 50 percent, the agency said. It wasn’t immediately clear if the company plans to stop operating entirely, or whether some workers may be kept on.
While the sign on the door instructed employees to await information by mail and to return any company property by mail, workers were concerned about getting their personal belongings, and someone called the police.
Farmington Police Department Lt. Tim McKenzie confirmed that an officer had been dispatched to the headquarters office Monday morning. McKenzie said the officer tried unsuccessfully to reach Rubino, before informing the employees they would have to attempt to recover any personal belongings through civil channels.
According to its website, Ultimate Nutrition was founded by Rubino’s father, power lifter Victor H. Rubino, in 1979.
The company has been registered to do business in Connecticut since the late 1980s, according to the Secretary of the State’s website. Ultimate Nutrition filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014, emerging out of it in 2016. A search of lawsuit records Monday did not turn up any new bankruptcy filing.