LyondellBasell to cut 68 jobs at former A. Schulman plant in Massachusetts

LyondellBasell Industries is cutting 68 jobs at a former A. Schulman Inc. compounding plant in Worcester, Mass.
The layoffs were included in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (WARN) notice filed with the state of Massachusetts for the week of July 19. The first effective date for the layoffs is Sept. 30.
Officials with LBI in Houston could not be reached for comment. 
LBI acquired Fairlawn, Ohio-based Schulman for $2.25 billion in early 2018. That deal added 54 Schulman production sites to LBI’s own 18 compounding sites. At the time, market watchers said that it was unlikely that all 72 sites would remain open.
In late 2018, Plastics News asked Jim Guilfoyle — executive vice president of LBI’s Advanced Polymer Solutions unit, which includes the former Schulman business — about possible plant closings. He declined to comment on specific locations, but said that the unit “has a lot of integration ahead of us, but we also have platforms for growth.”
Guilfoyle at that time pointed out that LyondellBasell plans to achieve $150 million in cost synergies from the Schulman acquisition through several steps, including better logistics and procurement.
“We’re still working through the plants,” he said. “We need to optimize the footprint. We’re looking at LyondellBasell sites as well as Schulman.”
Schulman had acquired the 120,000-square-foot Worcester plant in 2012 when it paid $36.5 million for ECM Plastics Inc., a maker of custom compounds and color and additive concentrates. ECM employed 140 at that time and had annual sales of $40 million.