Published on Jan. 7, 2026, at FOX31
A company contracted to operate the U.S. Postal Service’s Denver Regional Transfer Hub will lay off more than 700 employees as it ceases operations of the facility, according to a WARN notice sent to Colorado officials.
Alan Ritchey, Inc. CEO Robby Ritchey in the letter sent to the state on Tuesday said the USPS did not renew the company’s contract to operate the Denver Regional Transfer Hub, which is located on Colfax Avenue in Aurora.
The move affects 729 employees, who will all be laid off on Feb. 28, except for employees needed to assist with the “closure of the facility,” who will be employed past the end of February.
Ritchey said the USPS only notified the company that it did not extend the performance period of their contract on Dec. 29.
“We regret that we could not provide more notice of this layoff,” Ritchey said in the letter.
The USPS in 2024 transitioned its national operations to use the regional transfer hub model and opened the Denver RTH just over a year ago in October 2024, according to a July 2025 audit from the USPS Office of the Inspector General.
According to the audit, the USPS reworked the contract with the company that was operating its previous Denver facility, apparently being Alan Ritchey, and stated it would eventually transition to insourcing the Denver Regional Transfer Hub operations “before the end of 2025.”
Ritchey’s letter states that the company was aware of this goal but expected it to take more than the 61 days given for notice of the end of the contract.
“The Company could not foresee that the USPS would provide such short notice of termination, since we had previously been informed that USPS would modify and transition the facility to a USPS facility, a process that would take more than 61 days,” Ritchey said. “On Monday, January 5, 2026, we spoke with the USPS by phone and requested an extension of the performance period. USPS declined. The Company is left with no other options.”
Ritchey said the performance period of the contract had been extended throughout 2025, further adding to the unforeseeable nonrenewal of the contract.
Here’s a list of affected positions:
Asst Shift Manager — 2
HR Manager — 1
Dock Clerk — 76
Driver — 3
Forklift Operator — 163
Lead Shipper/Packer — 37
Maintenance Supervisor — 1
Shift Manager — 3
Shipper/Packer — 443
The USPS’ inspector general audit in July 2025 was over mail security at the Denver facility, which apparently found multiple issues with packages susceptible to damage and theft, potentially by the contracted employees, prompting investigators to recommend the USPS insource operations as soon as feasible.
Investigators visited the facility in April and found priority mail stickers removed from containers and were “hidden on the workroom floor, inside mail transport equipment, and in the inbound dock area.”
“Postal Service management expressed concern that contract employees were opening PMOD sacks to pilfer select medications,” the audit stated.
Investigators had also found that damaged packages disappeared from repair stations and discovered “vulnerable” materials like medication loose at the repair station.
“Postal Service management at the facility also noted observing damaged parcels across all processing operations, which they believed were caused by contractor staff rather than mail processing machines,” the audit stated. “Management believed the Denver RTH had significantly more damaged mail than there should be, especially when compared to the nearby Denver Processing and Distribution Center.”
An earlier investigation by the inspector general at the Denver Regional Transfer Hub had resulted in three contract employees being terminated for theft or knowledge of theft, but the audit stated that ongoing issues persisted.
After the inspector general’s office recommended prioritizing insourcing the operations at the Denver hub, postal service management agreed and identified a target date for implementation of Aug. 30, 2026.
It’s unclear based on the Alan Ritchey, Inc. layoff notice how this will affect the U.S. Postal Service’s operations in Denver since the Feb. 28 contract termination is before the insourcing date postal service management had anticipated.
FOX31 has reached out to the USPS for more information.
