CT Jewelry Jobs Migrating South

Millions of dollars in jewelry and nearly 200 jobs are leaving Connecticut. Finlay Enterprises, a jewelry distributor in Orange is closing up shop and moving south.

Finley sells to 674 department stores like Bloomingdales and retailers like Bailey, Banks & Bittle at the West Farms Mall. But Thursday it announced its strategic plan, citing a decline in sales.

For starters it's moving to Greensboro, North Carolina leaving all 170 employees at its distribution center out of a job.

"Everybody is just shocked that we lost our jobs, there's nothing for us," says an employee who asked to not be identified.

In a letter to employees, Finlay says some people will lose their jobs at the end of April. Workers were told others will stay until September at the latest.

"We knew they were having financial problems, we thought that they would file for Chapter 11 and that we'd be okay."

The company is ending its relationship with all department stores and will concentrate on specialty retailers only. That shrinks its client base from close to 700 stores to about 70.

A spokesperson for the Finlay Enterprises says it deeply regrets the impact this will have one workers, but says they are doing what they need to do to sustain the company. It blames the current economic crisis for its decline. Last year alone shares of the company lost 97 percent of their value.