Dive Brief:
- Ardagh Glass, the oldest glass manufacturing plant with operations in the U.S., will close its facility in Salem, NJ, this fall. Some 290 jobs will be eliminated.
- The glassmaker, which creates bottles and jars for Coca-Cola, Nestle, Absolut, and dozens of other companies, said it has suffered a "loss of significant business" at the New Jersey plant.
- Local reports said that Ardagh recently lost a contract at the plant with Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.
Dive Insight:
Ardagh declined to comment to reporters about claims it had lost a deal with Dr. Pepper Snapple. So it's impossible to say if that is the reasoning behind the plant closure.
But it is possible to note that the shutdown comes after Ardagh won approval from from antitrust regulators of its takeover of rival Saint-Gobain’s U.S. unit, Verallia. Ardagh had faced pressure to downsize in order to win the favor of regulators.