The Proctor and Gamble plant in Iowa City. (KCRG TV photo)
Around 500 jobs will be cut at a Procter and Gamble plant in eastern Iowa.
The company announced the move in a news release today.
Procter and Gamble will transfer its shampoo and body wash departments from Iowa City to a new plant in West Virginia. The company has closed several plants in recent years as it shifts production to fewer, but larger factories. While the decision will eliminate 500 jobs in Iowa City, the jobs of around 600 people with the company’s Oral B brand dental products line will remain in the area.
The news release from Procter and Gamble notes the Iowa City job cuts are being announced “more than two years in advance to help employees plan for the future.”
P&G Statement about Iowa City Plant
We shared with employees today that we will transfer production of our Hair Care (shampoo and conditioner) and Personal Cleansing (body wash) businesses from Iowa City, Iowa to our new facility at Tabler Station, West Virginia. These transfers will be completed in late 2020. Oral Rinse production will remain at the existing site. Oral Rinse production currently at the Iowa City Beauty Care Plant will remain there. We will conduct studies to determine the best use of the areas of the Iowa City Beauty Care plant facilities that will be vacated with the move of Hair Care/PCC to Tabler Station. Decisions like this are never easy, but we are communicating this decision more than two years in advance to help our employees plan for the future. We are committed to supporting P&G people through the transition in a manner consistent with our values and principles. We will negotiate with the local labor union regarding support to help employees transition to opportunities, whether that be transfers to other P&G sites or beyond P&G. For additional context, today’s announcement is the result of a study started in 2013 across our North American supply network to help us more efficiently and effectively serve retailers and consumers across the country. The new site is being master-planned to be a large, multi-category facility much bigger than the Iowa City plant, with strategic suppliers co-located on site, closer to three mega-distribution centers and presenting significant scale opportunities to develop solutions for channels and customers across categories that would not be feasible/ cost effective for smaller sites.
Additional information shared with employees today:
· Our Dish Care business from our site in Kansas City, Kansas will transfer to our new facility at Tabler Station, West Virginia. This is planned to be complete by mid-2020 and will result in the closure of the Kansas City plant in late 2020.
· As a result of these decisions, the estimate of full-time P&G employees at our new site in Tabler Station, West Virginia will increase from 700 to 900 by 2020
