Less than a year after unveiling expansion plans in South Carolina, a plastics recycler is instead closing up shop and putting dozens of people out of work.
PreZero US Inc. will shutter its Westminster, S.C., location in November and concentrate efforts in the United States on the company's Jurupa Valley, Calif., facility for now.
The South Carolina move is a stunning departure from an Oct. 2021 announcement that the company was expanding in Westminster through an $11.5 million project to create 32 jobs. Just a year ago, the expansion had local officials congratulating the firm on the lasting impact the company would have on the community.
A company spokesman indicated Sept. 27 he was limited in what he could say regarding the factors surrounding the South Carolina closure but did indicate PreZero still aspires to ultimately create a network of locations in the United States to recycle plastics.
"It is certainly a disappointment that we're unable to continue with this site at this time, but it doesn't change the overall trajectory of where we hope to go in the U.S.," said Max Bracey, marketing manager for PreZero US.
The company, for now, will focus energies on the firm's remaining location and still hopes to expand elsewhere in the future.
"Our goal is to have a facility in all major regions throughout the U.S.," Bracey said. "We still have big goals for our operations here in the U.S."
The company is currently winding down operations and the doors will close in November. Fifty-seven people will lose their jobs.
"It was not performing as we would have liked, for sure. But that's all we can say on it, specifically," Bracey said.
The move comes just three weeks after PreZero US named Clemens Stockreiter as the company's new CEO. He took over for Hernan de la Vega.
The former CEO, when the expansion was announced last fall, said PreZero was "excited to be building our facility with the community of Westminster."
"We have been operational since 2019, and this is only the beginning. We have made significant investments into the region and we are happy to provide stable, long-term employment opportunities for the surrounding community that will allow us to grow together," he said.
The pockets bankrolling PreZero US are deep. PreZero US is part the larger PreZero waste management and recycling company based in Germany. PreZero, itself, is part of the Schwarz Group, which operates well-known grocery store chain Lidl that has 11,000 stores in Europe and the United States. Schwarz also operates the Kaufland big box retail chain as well as Schwarz Production, which makes food sold in the company's stores.
Schwarz Production's operations includes PET recycling facilities that allow the company to use an average of 25 percent recycled content in its plastic packaging for store brands.
The company just recently broke ground on an expansion of its plastics and recycling plant in Übach-Palenberg, Germany. The creation of a new extrusion line will increase that plant's capacity by 12,000 tons or by more than 50 percent. "The expansion includes additional storage space and silos as well as unloading and sorting capacities for the recycling process," the company said on its website.
PreZero has a total of 30,000 employees at 475 locations in Germany, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal and the United States. The company PreZero also acquired plastic bag maker Roplast Industries Inc. of Oroville, Calif., in early 2021.
PreZero's South Carolina location previously was owned by ACI Plastics.