With the MLB season on hold, youth baseball leagues shut down in most of the country and retail orders down significantly, cap maker New Era has instituted a temporary furlough of the majority of its U.S. workforce.

According to a report in the Buffalo News, the furlough was effective March 30 and impacts approximately 70 percent of New Era’s 600 employees across the U.S., including in Buffalo, New York City, Miami and Irvine. During the furlough period, which New Era expects to run for 60 days, the company will operate with a limited number of employees in certain essential functions such as distribution, customer relations, sales and accounting.

“In my 40 years at New Era, I have never experienced a series of events that have so quickly and adversely impacted our business,” Chris Koch, New Era’s CEO, told the Buffalo News. “We felt we had no option but to move quickly to a temporary furlough in order to ride out this sudden economic downturn.

“This decision was not made lightly, and I regret the impact it will have on our employees,” he adds. “…We will do everything we can to get our employees back to work as soon as possible when our industry begins to return to normal.”

Koch says he is foregoing his salary for the remainder of the year in an effort to cut costs and that there will also be a reduction in compensation for those senior employees who remain on the job during the furlough period.