Owens-Illinois to Cut Jobs

Owens-Illinois has announced that it would be shrinking its Australian operations. It cited the slowdown in beer and wine consumption.

Owens-Illinois is the leading glass packaging supplier in the world. Chairman and CEO Albert Stroucken said another reason for the cuts is the uncertainty over customer and union contracts.

Stroucken added that although the company enjoyed improved profitability, Owens-Illinois is still facing challenges amid the country’s gloomy consumer confidence. Last year, the company received a $25 million restructure.

Addressing reporters, Stroucken said the company expects lower consumer confidence in the next few months. He added that it is also likely that high personal savings rate would weigh down on the beer and wine market both in New Zealand Australia.

The chairman and CEO described last year as ‘recession time,’ no thanks to the gloomy behavior of shoppers. Stroucken also said its Asia-Pacific operations declined to nearly six percent for the second quarter of 2012.

Because of the many hurdles that Owens-Illinois is facing, its management had to revisit its operations. In the process, management decided to implement plant closures and redundancies soon.

Stroucken said that because of the continued slowdown in the beer and wine markets and the ongoing negotiations with union and customer contracts, the future of the company is in question.

If implemented, this is a blow to the country’s manufacturing industry. Just last week, Qantas announced that it is cutting more than 160 jobs in its Tullamarine operations. This is on top of the 450 job cuts in Ford.