Berry Plastics plans to close five plants

Berry Plastics Corp. recently announced the closure and consolidation of three of its factories, including an engineered materials plant in Houston, TX, a flexible packaging plant in Kent, WA and a rigid open top plant in Alsip, IL. The company is evaluating the closure of two additional factories that have not yet been announced, a company spokesperson told PlasticsToday.

Production currently taking place at the three facilities will be transferred to other Berry Plastics facilities located within the U.S. The company anticipates that all transfers will be completed by September 2014.

These actions are being taken to allow Berry to maximize capacity utilization across its facilities, the company stated. Berry believes these actions will also enhance its ability to service its customers. The consolidations will result in a net reduction in labor of approximately 200 and Berry will work to help those employees affected with job loss to identify new opportunities in the aforementioned communities and at other Berry locations.

Overall, the company expects that the facility closures and consolidations will generate approximately $27 million of annual operating savings when fully implemented. 

Berry Plastics operates about 80 plants with more than 15,000 employees.