Hundreds of employees are being laid off at a rapidly growing specialized mortgage servicer. But the job cuts are merely a bump in the road, and continued growth is expected, according to the firm’s founder.
Wingspan Portfolio Advisors had just 39 employees as of October 2009. But as the demand for default services escalated during the housing crisis, Wingspan grew — reaching 500 employees by September 2011. Staffing climbed to 1,700 employees by March of this year.
Headcount at the Carrollton, Texas-based company has since settled back to 1,500 people, Wingspan Founder and Chief Executive Officer Steve Horne told Mortgage Daily in an interview at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference in Chicago last month.
But Horne projected that staffing would reach 2,000 by Dec. 31.
Growth plans, however, hit a snag last week.
On Nov. 6, Wingspan notified the Texas Workforce Commission in a Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification that 459 employees in Collin County would be laid off on Dec. 31.
Horne, however, issued a statement indicating that the layoffs are tied to the end of a client project.
“Our client hired us to complete a project — and the Wingspan team has done an excellent job doing so — and we will have it completed by end of the year,” Horne stated. “That is the nature of our business.”
Horne went on to say that numerous new business activities are currently underway or in development at the fast-growing servicer.
He explained that as many impacted employees as possible are being re-deployed to new opportunities.
Horne concluded that the layoffs won’t impact Wingspan’s projected rate of growth or revenue. An upcoming move to nearby Frisco also won’t be affected by the layoffs.
Wingspan is a Mortgage Daily advertiser.
