UPS Supply Chain Solutions, a business logistics division of United Parcel Service, has closed its operation at Tucson International Airport, laying off 13 people.
A state Department of Economic Security Web site said the layoffs were effective Oct. 31.
A sign on the door this week at the UPS Supply Chain Solutions, 2810 E. Airport Drive, referred customers to Reynolds Logistics.
UPS officials did not respond to requests concerning the extent of the layoffs or the change in operations, but a manager for Reynolds confirmed that the local trucking and air-freight firm is handling the UPS airport location's work under contract.
Supply chain management - a category that includes all aspects of the transportation, handling and storage of goods, from raw materials through the delivery of finished products - has been named as one of the area's growth sectors by Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities.
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TREO official Laura Shaw said she didn't view the closing of the local UPS operation as an indication that the forecast was flawed, and said she wasn't aware of any overall downturn in local logistics activity.
A UPS manager in Tucson did not return calls asking for comments on the closing, and a corporate spokesman, when first contacted, said he was unaware of any change in Tucson.
Mark Dickens, a UPS corporate spokesman in Atlanta, said he would check into whether UPS was closing other Arizona Supply Chain Solutions branches and turning over business to outside companies under contract, but later didn't reply to requests for that information.
Jose Chavez, operations manager for Reynolds Logistics Inc., the Tucson firm contracting with UPS to handle its business here, said this week that Reynolds hired several of the former UPS employees.
"They're contracting to us to do their pickup and deliveries," Chavez said. "We're in the same type of business. This, basically, if everything goes well, is long-term, hopefully."
Chavez said Reynolds was growing even before landing the UPS deal. Although he said the freight shipping part of the logistics-and-supply-chain business sector had been down locally and nationally during the recession, he said Reynolds' owner decided to concentrate more on trucking than air freight and had roughly doubled its work force in the last year.
He said the 12-year-old company has about 65 employees, most of them drivers. The company has 25 tractor-trailer rigs and uses two-man crews.
"We estimated late last year we would hire about 40 drivers in a year, and we're almost there," Chavez said.
Chavez attributed some of the growth in Reynolds' trucking volume to companies that were trying to cut costs during the recession. But he said Reynolds was still doing air freight, particularly on rush deliveries.
"We do a lot of charters where a commercial flight can get there in 12 hours, but a private jet can get there in five hours," Chavez said.