Jenny Craig, With 18 IL Locations, Tells Workers It's Closing: Report

ILLINOIS – The weight loss and management company Jenny Craig, which has 19 locations across Illinois, has reportedly told employees it will close its doors, according to internal documents obtained by NBC News.

The company told workers in an email late Tuesday it would close "due to its inability to secure additional financing," according to the report. The last day for corporate and field employees who are salaried will be May 5, the news outlet reported. The last day for center workers who are hourly was Tuesday.

Here are the Jenny Craig locations across Illinois:

• Fairview Heights
• St. Charles
• Darien
• Palatine
• East Peoria*
• Villa Park
• Champaign
• Bolingbrook
• Skokie
• Crystal Lake
• Bloomingdale
• Hodgkins
• Gurnee
• Wheaton
• Norridge
• Joliet
• Orland Park
• Chicago

While 18 of the 19 Illinois Jenny Craig locations are corporately owned, the East Peoria location is owned by Terri Helmle, who told Patch on Thursday that her studio will remain open.

Helmle owns six Jenny Craig studios in Illinois, Iowa, and Georgia, and said that while her studio cannot ship food to its clients, food is available for pick-up there as she works to continue to serve local residents. She said that while corporate studios like the other 18 across Illinois have been told their locations will be closing, Helmle told Patch she has been fighting to keep her doors open.

"Our hearts go out to the clients (amid the closures) and we are doing everything we possibly can to help them," she told Patch on Thursday.

Based in Carlsbad, California, Jenny Craig has about 500 company-owned and franchised locations across the country. The Jenny Craig program helps give people structure and support as they try to lose weight, and helps them learn how to keep it off. The program provides nutritional meals such as entrées, desserts and snacks, as well as individual coaching.

Jenny Craig and her late husband, Sid, opened their first Jenny Craig Weight Loss Center in 1983.

The chain had warned of mass layoffs and said it could close its corporate offices as early as Friday, WPVI reported Monday. The company told employees it was transitioning to an e-commerce model, according to the TV station.