Owens-Brockway Florida glass-bottle plant to close

Owens-Illinois has announced that it is closing the Owens-Brockway glass-bottle plant in Lakeland, FL, by the end of this year. The company noted that competition from plastic and aluminum containers had hurt the glass-bottle business, but the determining factor came when Anheuser-Busch decided to make its own beer bottles at a Houston plant.

Anheuser-Busch's Jacksonville, FL, brewery has been the 35-year-old Lakeland plant's primary customer for years. But, the O-I says, the five-year Anheuser-Busch contract ends this year. The Lakeland plant employs 190 workers.

O-I also announced that another facility in Brockway, PA, which employs about 380 workers, would also close by the end of this year.

The bottle-making firm cited "a strategic restructuring by the company" as the reason for the shutdowns. Factors listed for the restructuring included competition from plastic and enhanced productivity, which produces more bottles in fewer plants.

Other Owens-Illinois plants will absorb production now assigned to the two plants being closed.

The closings bring to 71 the number of U.S. glass-container plants closed in the past 22 years. The industry now operates 56 plants in the United States, down from 125 at the end of 1978. Owens-Illinois, America's largest glass-container manufacturer, will have 19 glass-container plants in 2001.

Edited by Bill Noone
Managing Editor, PackagingNetwork.com
bnoone@packagingnetwork.com