Solo Cup Co.'s layoffs will go deeper than earlier thought.
The company already has cut 9 percent, or about 100 people, from its total salaried workforce, Solo announced Dec. 5. About 25 contract workers also were let go. Most of the cuts, blamed on the economic slowdown, came at corporate offices in Highland Park, Ill., and Solo's Owings Mills, Md., plant.
However, another 147 workers at Owings Mills will be laid off as Solo ends manufacturing of hot cups and plastic lids at that facility, according to a notice filed under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.
About 950 employees will remain in Owings Mills,
``We are evaluating our operating efficiencies and we will continue to do that, although there are no additional major staffing reductions planned at this time,'' company spokeswoman Angie Chaplin said in a Dec. 10 telephone interview.
Chaplin said some machinery from the Owings Mills facility will be sent to a plant in Federalsburg, Md., though she did not give specifics. She said Solo plants in Dallas and Chicago will continue to produce the cups and lids.
Solo Cup reported a $27.3 million loss for the nine months ended Sept. 28. It had posted a $68.2 million profit last year, its first profit in three years.
The company has struggled to digest its 2004 acquisition of Sweetheart Cup Co. for $917.2 million, while simultaneously battling rising raw-materials costs.