Packaging manufacturers announced hundreds of layoffs in June amid shifting demand or restructuring. This follows numerous facility closure and idling announcements in May, including at Ball, Graphic Packaging and Packaging Corp. of America.
A few of the recent announcements came from glass plants. At a broader scale, glass packaging manufacturers are face demand shifts based on market changes, like beer losing share to other products in the alcoholic beverage category, and lingering supply chain effects following shipping bottlenecks in 2021 and 2022, explained Scott DeFife, president of the Glass Packaging Institute.
Also this month, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced approval of a $7.5 million federal workforce grant to help workers laid off due to Pactiv Evergreen closing a paper mill in Canton and reducing operations at another facility. Nearly 1,100 workers were affected and most of the layoffs, announced earlier this year, happened June 9.
These are some of the layoff announcements that packaging manufacturers made in June:
- Ardagh is permanently eliminating 337 positions in Wilson County, North Carolina, according to a June 21 notice. Strategic Materials will send the region’s recycled glass to other destinations for melting down, the News & Observer reported. Workers at an Ardagh glass packaging plant in Simsboro, Louisiana, also learned this month that the facility will close in mid-July, potentially affecting some 245 workers, the Ruston Daily Leader reported. Ardagh reportedly cited decreased demand.
- O-I Glass is cutting 81 jobs at a glass bottle facility in Portland, Oregon, per a June 13 notice. That’s about 70% of the staff there, Glass International reported. The layoffs are expected to begin July 21. They may not be permanent, but the company expects they’ll last for at least six months. O-I cited “an unexpected slow in the local wine market.”
- Stora Enso announced this month it will lay off 1,150 employees over the next year, in part due to a restructuring. Many of those layoffs are associated with facility closures across Europe — including in Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland — amid changing market dynamics, especially for containerboard.
- WestRock is closing a facility in the Atlanta area and laying off 89 employees, according to a notice dated June 13. The layoffs will take effect Aug. 12.
