Duluth, Minn.-based Monson Trucking is shutting down operations Aug. 31, putting 200 people out of work, including all who work at the company's Mauston terminal.

Michael Monson is one of the owners. He said Wednesday that the 100 employees in Duluth were told of the shutdown plans in multiple meetings.

Another 100 employees at terminals in Virginia and Red Wing in Minnesota and at Mauston, were told via video conferencing.

A woman who answered the phone at the company's Mauston terminal Thursday directed questions to company officials in Duluth, who did not immediately respond to a message seeking specifics about the Mauston layoffs.

Monson said the Duluth employees will work until Aug. 31, but those at Mauston and the other terminals were being terminated immediately.

According to information at the company's Web site, Monson's Mauston terminal opened in 2006. The Web site does not indicate how many people were employed in Mauston.

Monson blamed the economic downturn, decline of the paper industry and bankruptcy of two major customers for prompting the decision to close the 94-year-old trucking business.

The company's Mauston operation is located at 200 Commercial St.