WestRock to Shut Down Coschocton Facility

 

According to a report this past week by the Coschocton Tribune, Coschocton, Ohio, USA, corporate leaders of WestRock have confirmed the company's local plant will close November 28, affecting 225 employees.

Tucker McNeil, director of communications for WestRock, said Coshocton's upcoming plant closing will affect 180 hourly workers and 45 salaried employees. The former Rock-Tenn plant at 500 N. Fourth St. makes medium, part of the corrugated board in packaging. Company leaders decided to shut Coshocton's plant "to balance our overall supply of container board with our customers," McNeil said this past Friday night.

 

 

Company officials notified the Coshocton facility this past Friday of the upcoming closing.

"I think there will be an orderly closure. I don't have any information about the production schedule between now and then," McNeil said.

McNeil added that the company has taken similar actions at other plants recently.

"Not today, but recently," he said.

Coshocton Mayor Steve Mercer said a corporate spokesperson told him WestRock is examining its operations companywide to meet the demand for its products, which serve the global packaging market. He commented that he was surprised by Friday's announcement, given recent changes by the company.

The local plant has undergone two mergers in the past five years. The last one, announced in January of this year, eventually merged Rock-Tenn and MeadWestvaco into WestRock, a $16 billion company. In 2011, Rock-Tenn purchased the Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. for $3.5 billion. After that acquisition, the local plant was Rock-Tenn's 14th highest-producing facility.

Rock-Tenn was the tenth largest employer in Coshocton County in February 2014, according to the Coshocton Port Authority.