151 to lose jobs as Silgan Plastics to close Woodstock facility

WOODSTOCK – By late spring, Silgan Plastics Corporation will lay off 151 employees and close its one remaining manufacturing plant in Woodstock, dramatically changing course on a local restructuring plan announced last month.

In a letter sent to the state in late October, the North American plastics container maker said it would close the Silgan Tubes plant at 1005 Courtaulds Drive because of a restructuring to its manufacturing operations and the loss of a major Woodstock customer, multiple sources told the Northwest Herald.

Earlier in October, Silgan said in paperwork with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity that a company restructure would result in layoffs to 39 employees by mid-November at its Woodstock location.

City and McHenry County officials said Silgan representatives didn't indicate to them why they decided to change plans. A call for comment Tuesday with Silgan's human resource department at its corporate headquarters in Chesterfield, Missouri, was not returned.

Calling Silgan's decision disappointing, Pam Cumpata, president of the McHenry County Economic Development Corp., said her group will work alongside the McHenry County Workforce Network to connect the affected employees with other plastic manufacturers in the area.

"We are losing another company," Cumpata said. "The upside is, hopefully we have enough molders in the county who are struggling to find employees that many of these people will land with other plastic molder and injection companies."

The layoffs, affecting 151 employees at the Woodstock plant, mostly are manufacturing
positions who helped produce plastic tubes for Silgan customers primarily in the personal care market.

Originally set for December, the plant closing now will happen in late April, allowing the affected employees more time to find new jobs, said Workforce Network Director Julie Courtney.

The countywide workforce development agency had been planning job fairs tailored to the more than three dozen employees at Silgan Plastics who initially were set to lose their jobs. Those plans, Courtney said, will be postponed until the spring once the network better understands the needs of all affected employees.

"We still be working with them to help them get re-employed," Courtney said. "There seems to be a lot of interest from other plastics manufacturers in the county interested in the skills and talents of the employees affected at Silgan."

The network will offer retraining and job searching services, she said. Courtney didn't know whether employees had received severance packages or other assistance from Silgan. But, she said, they are being offered opportunities to apply to open positions at other Silgan facilities, including one in Flora.

The Woodstock plant closing also means an exit from McHenry County for Silgan Plastics. At the start of the decade, the plastics maker operated two plants in Woodstock – its tubes plant and a plastics production plant along Lake Avenue.

In early 2011, Silgan executives announced the closing of its Lake Avenue facility,

identifying the plant’s older and less competitive technology as the reason. The move affected about three dozen employees at the plant.

Silgan's latest decision marks the largest set of layoffs in Woodstock since Quad/Graphics during summer 2014 announced it would close the local Brown Printing facility and lay off nearly 550 employees.

Silgan also made the closing decision at a time when Woodstock officials were transitioning to a new internal structure designed to focus more resources toward economic development.

Economic development director Garrett Anderson, who started at Woodstock City Hall in September, said he wasn't able to establish contact with Silgan employees, although he has met other industrial companies in the city.

Silgan also never reached out to the city before disclosing its restructuring plan, he said. But Silgan's decision doesn't reflect the broader employment trend happening lately in Woodstock, he said.

Anderson pointed to recent state figures that showed Woodstock with the largest drop in unemployment among major cities and villages in the county. The 1.7 percentage point drop put the city's unemployment rate at 4.2 percent in September.

Unemployment rates throughout Illinois have been falling in 2015. State officials, however, have warned that job growth numbers across Illinois generally are not keeping pace with unemployment declines.

Anderson said he also is talking with other Woodstock businesses who want to grow within the city, adding Guy's E.Paper Company recently relocated from Huntley and brought its 28 full-time employees to Woodstock.

The small paper manufacturer made a $2 million investment to renovate an 80,000-square-foot portion of the former D.B. Hess building earlier this year, intending to add jobs in future years.

Anderson's department is working on a new economic strategic plan designed to help and encourage other businesses to expand, he said.

"Generally speaking, I don't see [Silgan] as part of a trend," Anderson said. "I see people hiring and investing in Woodstock."