258 jobs cut regionally, 161 at single Tampa Bay company

Paragon Water Systems announced Monday that it is laying off 161 people at two facilities in the Tampa area, this on a day when two other companies in the region announced nearly 100 more job cuts.

The three companies notified the state in letters that posted publicly Monday afternoon. The letters were sent to meet WARN Notice requirements. Federal law requires companies to provide states with Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification notices when making job cuts.

The biggest cuts are happening at Paragon, a water filtration company founded in Clearwater in 1988 and sold to Culligan Water in 2018. In two identical letters, the company says it is making 127 cuts at its 13805 Monores Business Park facility in Tampa and 34 at it 4029 Tampa Road facility in Oldsmar.

The company does not say why it is eliminating the jobs. The letters, however, do refer to the job cuts as a “mass layoff/facility closure” and say that “it is anticipated that the Tampa Road location will eventually close and any non-laid off employees will be relocated to the Monroes Business Park location. This mass layoff/facility closure is expected to be permanent.”

A human resources representative listed as the contact did not respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.

The layoffs are expected to begin Oct. 13 and be done by Jan. 31, 2024. 

The two other companies are Centrex Revenue Solutions in Fort Myers, which is eliminating 71 jobs, and LGSTX Services in Tampa, which is cutting 26.

In the case of Centrex Revenue Solutions, the company, which does business as Integra Practice Solutions and IntegraConnect, says in its letter that it’s closing its office at 2160 Colonial Blvd. 

According to the company, it “received an unexpected notice of intent not to renew from its customer,” and the facility will have to close. Given the suddenness of the news, the company say in the letter that the layoffs will take place Aug. 31.

The company describes itself as a provider “of value-based, precision medicine solutions and services for specialty care.”

As for LGSTX Services, it is permanently ceasing operations at its 4736 N. Hoover Blvd. location in Tampa. The company is a subsidiary of Airborne Global Solutions out of Ohio and manages aircraft ground services.

In its letter to the state, LGSTX president James T. Pradetto writes that “the layoff is the result of the sudden and unforeseen decision made by a customer to terminate operations services.”

The layoffs are effective Oct. 12.

Neither Centrex nor LGSTX disclosed who the customers were that led to the closures and layoffs.