Family-owned Wisconsin trucking company warns that mass layoffs loom following backruptcy case

A Wisconsin trucking company has filed notice with state regulators of possible mass layoffs on the horizon as the company looks for a buyer amid bankruptcy proceedings.

In a May 28, 2026 notice, Wisconsin Rapids-based Sparhawk Trucking, Inc., and Sparhawk Truck and Trailer informed Wisconsin state officials as well as employees that “the Companies may be undergoing a business closing or a mass layoff on or before sixty days from the date of this Notice.”

According to the notice, Sparhawk Trucking is a debtor in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in the Western District of Wisconsin.

While the company continues to operate as usual amidst the bankruptcy proceedings, it may be forced to close or lay off workers soon.

“…If we are not able to find a suitable buyer for the Companies that will allow the business to keep operating or if a buyer does not hire substantially all the Companies’ employees, a mass layoff or plant closing may follow with employee separations,” the notice reads. “We do not know if the Companies will close, if there will be a mass layoff, we do not know the date, or number of layoffs, or the positions that will be laid off. We do know that once such layoffs occur or the business closes, such layoffs or business closure is very likely to be permanent.”

“No employee should count on the business remaining open or mass layoffs not taking place,” the notice said.

Companies of a certain size are required to give employees sixty days notice of a company closure or mass layoff under the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

Sparhawk Trucking describes itself as family owned and operated since 1979. The company operates 178 power units, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SAFER website.