Packaging facility to shut its doors after 50 years
Weyerhaeuser Co. will close its 50-year-old Honolulu corrugated-packaging facility May 12, leaving 85 people out of work.
"The decision was made to improve financial returns and enhance business competitiveness, and the closure is in no way related to the performance of our work force," said Ed Carter, Weyerhaeuser containerboard packaging and recycling sales vice president.
The company will dismantle the plant and sell its 3-acre parcel, said Anthony Chavez, public affairs manager for Hawaii. Weyerhaeuser has been at its Nimitz Highway location for all of its 50 years in Hawaii.
Weyerhaeuser will meet with customers over the next few weeks to discuss supply options, which could include boxes from other company facilities. The Honolulu facility was one of 74 in the United States and Mexico.
Employees were informed of the closure Wednesday afternoon, Chavez said.
"We'll be working with them on transition planning," Chavez said, and "we'll do everything we can to help them secure new employment."
This month, the company closed a veneer-drying plant in Junction City, Ore., and moved up the planned closure date by four months of a sawmill in Toutle, Wash.
In late February Weyerhaeuser and Chevron Corp. announced the name of a joint venture, Catchlight Energy LLC, that will work to develop biofuels such as ethanol from non-edible sources, including wood and other cellulose-based biomass.