Alcan Inc.'s Food Packaging Americas unit is expanding its film plant in Newark, Calif., and closing another plant 17 miles away in San Leandro.
Alcan will offer jobs in Newark to 35 employees from San Leandro. Once the consolidation is complete, probably by the end of March, the Newark site will employ about 140.
Meantime, Alcan intends to lay off 40 hourly and salaried employees in San Leandro. The company notified the California Employment Development Department of the layoff Nov. 3, as required under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law.
The Newark plant will expand to 117,300 square feet, from the current 104,400 square feet. Alcan is moving some equipment from San Leandro and installing a new 10-color flexographic printing press. Newark uses blown film and slitting equipment to produce film for packaging fresh produce and condiments.
Matthew Berlind, a Chicago-based Alcan spokesman, said the company is concentrating sourcing, supply and distribution operations at plants that it considers ``centers of excellence.'' Existing operations in that category are in New York, Arkansas and Tennessee.
Montreal-based Alcan obtained the Newark and San Leandro facilities through its 2003 acquisition of Pechiney SA of Paris.
A Pechiney unit bought the Newark site from Guardian Packaging in 1986 and the San Leandro facility from JPS Packaging Inc. in 1999. Manufacturing operations began in the Newark location in 1961 and in San Leandro in 1957.
Alcan's Paris-based packaging business segment operates 150 plants in 30 countries, and uses plastics, aluminum, paper, paperboard, glass and steel to supply multiple end markets.