Foster is winding down its North Carolina food distribution footprint, with 181 workers affected across sites tied to Winston-Salem and Greenville. State WARN records show the closures were filed on October 21, 2026, after the company lost major customer business.
What Foster filed in North Carolina
North Carolina Commerce records show Foster filed WARN notices dated October 21, 2026, with the state receiving them on October 22, 2026. The filings list permanent closures with an effective date of March 5, 2027. The records identify 169 affected workers at 2900 Lowery St. in Winston-Salem and 12 at 1060 Taylors Creek Dr. in Greenville.
The state summary lists the Winston-Salem and Greenville sites under WARN number 202600057. Both entries are classified as closures, not temporary layoffs, and both are marked permanent. The notice does not list any affected workers in Colfax, even though reporting on the wind-down says Foster operates a third North Carolina facility there.
Business North Carolina reported that the Colfax location in western Guilford County had no workers assigned to it when the notice was filed. That outlet also reported the jobs affected stretch beyond warehouse roles and include company leadership positions. Foster did not immediately provide additional public detail in that report beyond what was included in the WARN filing and management letter.
For workers, the state’s WARN process matters because it starts the clock for rapid response and job transition help. North Carolina Commerce says companies meeting WARN thresholds must notify the state ahead of major closures or mass layoffs, and the agency’s rapid response program is designed to support affected employees after a filing.
Why the food distributor is winding down
According to Business North Carolina, Foster said it learned on October 14, 2026, that its principal customer would terminate its contract effective November 11, 2026. In the company’s WARN explanation, that account represented about 70% of Foster’s business. The same report said a second lost customer accounted for another 10%.
Foster described the loss of the main account as sudden and unexpected, according to the report quoting the WARN letter. That explanation is also why the company said it could not provide every worker with the standard 60 days of notice. The reporting ties the closures directly to those lost contracts, rather than to a food safety issue, retail shutdown, or product recall.
The company has long operated behind the scenes of the food supply chain. Business North Carolina said Foster began more than a century ago as Foster & Caviness in Greensboro and grew into a multi-state food logistics and supply chain business serving restaurants, schools, food pantries, and other customers. Its operations included food delivery and cold storage.
That makes this a meaningful change for institutional and commercial food customers, even if most shoppers will never have visited one of the sites. This is not a supermarket closing to the public. The disruption is more likely to be felt in contract distribution, warehousing, refrigerated storage, and route planning for the customers that relied on Foster.
What it could mean for food customers
The reported timeline shows the staffing reductions are staggered, not all at once. Business North Carolina said 36 workers were separated on October 25, 2026, another 121 are scheduled to leave on November 8, and the final 24 are expected to depart in groups between December 4 and March 5.
For customers that relied on Foster for fresh, refrigerated, or frozen distribution, the practical issue is continuity. Accounts may need replacement warehousing, transportation, cold storage, or fresh handling capacity. That can affect how quickly restaurants, schools, and other institutional buyers reset delivery schedules and inventory systems.
The timing also stands out because Foster had recently expanded in Winston-Salem. Business North Carolina reported the company invested $6.25 million in a cold storage and distribution facility there, completed in 2025. A 2024 North Carolina Commerce release tied a state grant-supported renovation in Winston-Salem to a building then occupied by Foster-Caviness, a wholesale produce distribution company serving retailers, schools, chain restaurants, and prisons in the mid-Atlantic region.
For home cooks, the story is mostly a reminder of how much of the food system runs out of sight. Warehouses, truck routes, and cold rooms rarely make headlines, but they help move produce and other perishables to the places where people actually buy meals and groceries. When a distributor exits, the visible effect may be limited at first, but the rerouting work behind the scenes can be substantial.