TriMas closing California plant in face of lower demand

TriMas Corp. is closing one packaging site in the United States and consolidating two others in China into a new facility due to lower demand for the company's packaging products.

The Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based company expects to close a leased facility in Rohnert Park, Calif., and "reposition all of the production assets to other existing U.S. production locations," the company said. TriMas said the changes in its TriMas Packaging division will take place by the end of this year.

The company, in a July 12 email, indicated the majority of products made at the California site are for the food and beverage markets.

TriMas also provided some additional information about the moves in China.

"We are consolidating the two China facilities (one [of] which was in [an] export-only zone) to the new state-of-the-art location in the Haining region, which is located near existing plants. Production (mostly dispensers) is shifting to the new plant for in-country sales. We are moving some of the products back to North American locations to be closer to the end customer, which is a trend we have been seeing as of late and often requested by our customers," TriMas said.

Additional information could be released in future quarterly earnings calls. "There will be some severance and equipment move [and] one-time charges, as well obviously savings, but we have not disclosed these figures yet," the company said in the email.

The company said it did file a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter with the state employment department, but the state indicated it has not received the correspondence as of July 12. Federal law requires companies with at least 100 workers to provide a 60-day notice for plant closures or significant layoffs.

TriMas, in an email, did indicate the job loss in Rohnert Park is fewer than 100 positions.

The company has been in the process of making acquisitions recently, including the purchase of a Netherlands-based injection molding firm earlier this year and Colorado injection molder Intertech Plastics LLC in 2022.

In another move, the company will insource what is described as a third-party warehouse and distribution center in New Jersey to save money on logistics.

"We expect to experience the benefits of these actions in 2024, as we continue to believe the lower demand environment is temporary, and we will leverage well as macro-economic pressures impacting demand subside," TriMas President and CEO Thomas Amato said in his statement.

TriMas Packaging makes dispensing, closure and flexible packaging products for the beauty, personal care, food and beverage, home, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, industrial and agricultural markets. Brands include Rieke, Affaba & Ferrari, Taplast, Plastic Srl and Aarts Packaging.

Manufacturing includes dispensing pumps, sprayers, caps, closures, flexible packaging and industrial drum products.

TriMas Packaging was No. 29 in the most recent Plastics News ranking of North American injection molders, with $340 million in sales in 2022.

TriMas Packaging is one of three divisions at publicly traded TriMas Corp. Other segments are in aerospace and specialty products, including engines and steel cylinders.

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