Newell Brands Inc. is closing its Coleman Co. Inc. camping products plant in New Braunfels, Texas, eliminating 144 jobs by year's end.
The company revealed the closure plan in a June 23 filing under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. The permanent layoffs are to begin Aug. 21. Newell Brands did not say why the plant is closing.
Andrea Ruiz, a human resources spokesperson for Coleman in New Braunfels, said by phone June 29 that those operations are to be consolidated into a Coleman plant in Wichita, Kan. The Texas plant produced coolers and other outdoor and recreational products using injection and blow molding, as well as extrusion. The company has operated in New Braunfels more than 40 years.
Coleman, based in Chicago, was founded in 1900 and has changed hands several times in recent years. It previously was owned by Sunbeam Corp. and then Jarden Corp. In 2015, Newell, then known as Newell Rubbermaid, gained Coleman and a host of other big-name brands when it paid $13.2 billion for Boca Raton, Fla.-based Jarden. Those brands included Yankee Candle and Mr. Coffee.
Coleman closed a plant in Sauk Rapids, Minn., last year, eliminating 175 jobs. The plant, which made boating life jackets, operated as Stearns Inc.