IPL Plastics plc is closing its Encore Plastics thermoforming plant in Cambridge, Ohio, in a move that will eliminate 89 jobs.
In a Sept. 12 letter to the Ohio Department of Jobs & Family Services, IPL North America Chief Operating Officer Greg Hutchison said that layoffs began that day and will be completed by Nov. 12. He added that some employees will be provided options to relocate and/or receive severance.
The Cambridge plant has had a troubled history in recent years. A production manager was killed in an accident at the site in November 2022, leading to a fine of almost $300,000 against Ireland-based IPL. That fine was issued in May by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.
An OSHA investigation said the accident was the result of inadequate lockout/tagout procedures. It also found that workers were almost injured in two similar incidents at the plant, one on the same day as the fatality and one two days before. The plant had been fined $12,500 for similar violations in 2020.
The Cambridge plant makes plastic buckets, lids and paint trays. IPL acquired the plant in 2016, when it bought Encore Plastics Inc. of Sandusky, Ohio. In 2020, Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Capital Partners LLC bought IPL, which had been traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
IPL ranked No. 20 in the most recent Plastics News survey of North American injection molders, with estimated molding sales in the region of $420 million in eight molding plants. The firm was founded in Canada in 1939. In 2015, One51 plc of Ireland bought a majority stake in IPL and took on its name.