Flexible packaging maker TC Transcontinental is scheduled to begin layoffs at company plant in Lenexa, Kan., this week.
A recent notice to Kansas Department of Commerce to satisfy the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act indicates that between 45 and 65 of the facility's 159 workers will lose their jobs with the first of the layoffs scheduled to happen "on or about" March 3.
"Affected employees will be notified via WARN letters ... As last dates are known, additional individual WARN letters will be sent," the letter reads.
The Lenexa plant is not unionized, and no bumping rights exist for the workers losing their jobs, TC Transcontinental said.
The letter indicates 18 different jobs positions are being impacted by the layoffs but does not indicate how many jobs in each category are being eliminated. Impacted jobs include equipment operators and assistants, printing positions, material handling and inventory workers and maintenance slots. The company also lists quality technician and production supervisor as other impacted positions.
The Kansas layoffs follows closure of the company's Tomah, Wis., packaging plant announced in November 2023. Production, according to the company at the time, was to be transferred to other company sites in Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, South Carolina as well as the Lexana location.
A total of 89 people were affected by the move, the company said then. TC Transcontinental said at the time the move would allow the company to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
TC Transcontinental acquired the Lenexa facility in 2016 as part of an initial push to diversify company holdings into flexible packaging in addition to its legacy printing business. A company official, at the time, called the acquisition "great news for the ongoing development of our flexible packaging division."
The former Robbie Manufacturing location, TC Transcontinental said at the time, specializes in on-site packaging needs for grocery stores, shrink wrap packaging of multipack consumer goods, and packaging solutions for food processors.
TC Transcontinental first became involved in flexible plastic packaging with the 2014 purchase of Capri Packaging followed by 2015's acquisition of Ultra Flex Packaging Corp. The Lenexa deal came next followed by the 2018 purchase of Coveris Americas, a $1.32 billion move that added provided 21 manufacturing locations that at the time provided TC Transcontinental with scale for its plastics business. The company, prior to that deal, had seven flexible packaging locations.