Nestlé Health Science plans 31 layoffs at Holbrook facility

Nearly half the workforce at Nestlé Health Science’s Holbrook site is set to disappear, a cut that will hit paychecks at 4,320 Veterans Memorial Highway and send another jolt through Suffolk County’s manufacturing base. The company plans to lay off 31 of the site’s 69 workers starting in July.

Nestlé Health Science said in a state WARN filing that the layoffs are for economic reasons. Under New York’s WARN law, covered employers must give advance notice of planned layoffs to affected workers and public officials, a requirement meant to give families and local agencies time to prepare for the loss of income.

The Holbrook reduction lands at a company that Newsday said employs more than 1,900 workers across Suffolk County. Nestlé Health Science also operates other Long Island sites in Bohemia, Bayport, Holbrook and Ronkonkoma, which makes the Holbrook cut feel less like an isolated staffing change than a signal to watch across the region’s health-products and manufacturing footprint.

The business’s local roots run deep. Nature’s Bounty was founded in 1971 as a Long Island vitamin business, and Nestlé Health Science completed its acquisition of the core brands of The Bountiful Company, including Nature’s Bounty, in August 2021. Nestlé and KKR valued that deal at $5.75 billion, folding a familiar Suffolk County brand into a global nutrition company with a sizable local presence.

For workers, the immediate question is where those jobs go next. Employees with plant, warehouse and production experience may look for openings at other Nestlé Health Science facilities on Long Island or in nearby industrial employers, but the loss of 31 jobs at a single Holbrook site will still tighten household budgets and reduce activity around the facility. Vendors, contractors and nearby businesses that rely on the site’s daily traffic could also feel the slowdown.

The WARN filing leaves open the broader question that now hangs over Holbrook: whether this is a one-site adjustment or the first visible sign of a larger reshaping of Nestlé Health Science’s Long Island operations.