Packaging Corporation of America is permanently closing its full-line plant at 1824 Baltimore Street in Middletown, Ohio, a move that will affect all 91 employees who work there. Most of those workers are scheduled to finish their jobs or be laid off on Dec. 1, with a few possibly staying on beyond that date, and the company expects the building to sit empty by the end of the year.
Consolidating Into a Newer, Bigger Operation
According to finance.yahoo.com, the company is folding the Middletown site's work into what it calls larger and more efficient operations, including a new plant PCA recently opened elsewhere in Ohio. That destination is a 550,000-square-foot corrugated converting plant in Newark that started operations in July, the outlet reports. The Middletown facility itself sits at 1824 Baltimore Street, and per a 2004 company report cited by cincinnati.com, it has long operated as a corrugated manufacturing facility.
Per daytondailynews.com, PCA described the decision in a company letter, saying, “This was a difficult business decision; it is in no way a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our valued employees.” Hourly production and maintenance workers at the plant are represented by United Steelworkers Local No. 1676, the same outlet reports, and those union members have already been notified of the closure.
Help Promised for Workers Looking to Transfer
As WLWT reports, the layoffs follow a filed notice, and PCA has said it will assist affected employees who want to transfer to other PCA locations with open positions. The station also notes the company plans to work with state and local government officials to provide assistance to dislocated workers. Dayton247Now reports that most employees will be done on Dec. 1, with a few possibly asked to stay beyond that date, and that the company will help workers who want to move to another facility that has open positions.
This is not the first packaging job loss to hit Middletown recently. Another packaging plant in the city shut down about 15 months earlier, eliminating 136 jobs, according to dayton247now.com. The Dayton Daily News separately reports that Graphic Packaging Holding Co. closed its coated recycled paperboard facility on Charles Street last year, affecting about 130 employees.
Part of a Broader Pattern at PCA and Across Ohio
The Middletown closure is one of several PCA has disclosed recently. The company announced plans in April to close a full-line plant in Virginia as of June, and in August it disclosed plans to close a full-line plant in Gas City, Indiana, laying off that site's 78 workers the week of Oct. 26, according to finance.yahoo.com. Meanwhile, PCA has also been expanding: the company previously detailed plans to invest $229 million in a new facility on a 78-acre site in Newark that would retain 131 full-time permanent employees, per newarkadvocate.com.
The Middletown closure lands amid a rough stretch for Ohio manufacturing. Nearly 1,400 workers were laid off this week from the former Navistar truck factory in Springfield, according to springfieldnewssun.com, though Roshel, the company buying that plant, said it expects to rehire laid-off workers within six to 12 months. The same outlet notes the Dayton area has lost about half of its 90,000 factory jobs since 1990. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that employment declined in 8 of Ohio's 15 largest counties from March 2025 to March 2026, though the full context behind that figure was not detailed.
Federal law generally requires covered employers to give at least 60 calendar days' advance written notice before a plant closing or mass layoff affecting 50 or more employees at a single site, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. For the 91 workers at the Baltimore Street plant, that notice period now runs toward a Dec. 1 deadline, with the building expected to be empty by the close of the year.
