Checks Unlimited to lay off 100 workers

Checks Unlimited will lay off up to 100 employees in Colorado Springs after consolidating check printing operations in Salt Lake City and Kansas City, Mo., as a result of consumers switching to electronic payment methods from personal checks.

The Springs-based company also has put its 285,640-square-foot building at 8245 N. Union Blvd. in the Briargate area on the market because "we have a lot of vacant space we are not using" and will relocate its remaining 700-employee local call center operation elsewhere in the Springs if necessary, said Terry Peterson, a spokesman for Shoreview, Minn.-based Deluxe Corp., parent company for Checks Unlimited.

"Consumers are paying more bills by electronic means, so check volumes have been declining for some time and we had to adjust our printing operation to lower volumes. This facility no longer has enough volume to support a stand-alone operation," Peterson said. "We expect and are planning for further reductions in check volumes, but we are retaining the call center in Colorado springs because it is our largest."

The consolidation will begin in about two months and be completed by the end of September, Peterson said. Employees in the printing operation can apply for openings at other Deluxe Corp. printing plants or jobs in the call center; those who don't get hired or don't want to move will get severance pay and continued benefits based on their length of employment with the company as well as help in finding another job, he said.

Checks Unlimited was started in the mid 1980s as part of Current Inc., a Springs-based direct-mail greeting card and gift company acquired by Deluxe in 1987. Deluxe moved into a building leased and later acquired from Hewlett-Packard Co. in the early 1990s and later sold off Current. Checks Unlimited employed nearly 1,400 in 2001 before a series of layoffs over the three years cut the company's work force by nearly 500.
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