A variety of packaging companies in October announced planned layoffs and closures at U.S. sites. Once carried out, these changes are slated to affect more than 1,000 employees.

• Dart Container Corp. will permanently close a manufacturing site in Corona, California, by the end of February, according to an Oct. 1 worker adjustment and retraining notification filed with the state. The permanent closure will affect 171 employees, effective Feb. 27. Dart also closed manufacturing sites in California last year, pointing to SB 54’s impacts to EPS food service ware.
• Georgia-Pacific plans to permanently close a box plant in Mt. Olive, Illinois, by Dec. 31. G-P says it’s working to support the 134 affected employees, including with job assistance inside and outside the company. Market factors such as declining orders contributed to the company’s decision to close the facility. G-P separately announced it would close two facilities in Memphis, Tennessee: a cellulose mill and a technology and innovation center. The company’s WARN filed with the state of Tennessee flags permanent layoffs for a total of 151 people.
• Greystone Manufacturing, which produces plastic pallets, filed a WARN with the state of Iowa showing it planned to lay off 85 employees in late October at a facility in Bettendorf. According to Plastics News, the layoffs stem from the company losing orders that made up nearly two-thirds of its production.
• International Paper “executed the decision to outsource a large portion of our North American IT service and support functions,” said CEO Andy Silvernail during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 30. An unspecified number of employees will be laid off once IP outsources these IT functions to Infosys, according to local news reports. Silvernail said this is a “strategic move toward better scalability, cost efficiency and positioning IT in our businesses to deliver operational and customer excellence.”
• Mauser Packaging Solutions confirmed its subsidiary, Industrial Container Services, is “tentatively” closing a steel drum reconditioning facility in Chicago. The closure is slated for Nov. 21 and would affect 168 workers. Up until the mid-October closure announcement, members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 705 had been striking at the site since June 9. The company said it did a “thoughtful evaluation” and this location faced “a range of operational challenges” and shifting market dynamics.
• Packaging Corporation of America announced upcoming closures for two full-line plants: one in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and another in Salisbury, North Carolina. About 60 employees will be affected by the Allentown closure, slated to occur by Dec. 1. And 108 workers will be impacted when the Salisbury plant closes by Dec. 19.
• Silgan Containers filed a WARN with the state of California about temporary layoffs for 180 people at a facility in Riverbank that were scheduled to take effect at the end of October.
• Smurfit Westrock intends to permanently shut a corrugated sheet and box plant in City of Industry, California, by Dec. 14. A WARN letter shows 141 people will be laid off. CEO Tony Smurfit referenced the closure during the company’s Oct. 29 earnings call, saying it’s one of nine since the company formed via M&A in July 2024. The company has lost 4,500 people since then.
• TekniPlex, which makes a variety of packaging for consumer and healthcare products, is laying off 64 people at a Dallas facility, effective Dec. 26. That site manufactures foam egg cartons, Plastics News reported.