Industry ushers in 2025 with layoffs, plant closures

Optimizing, streamlining, restructuring or improving one's competitive edge.

Whatever the reason, suppliers, manufacturers and distributors are closing plants, consolidating operations and reducing their work forces across the rubber industry.

Since the beginning of the year, several companies have made announcements of such moves, impacting well over 6,500 jobs worldwide.

And this number could grow. As some companies—ones with more phased approaches or multi-year plans—have either yet to disclose estimated work force impacts or have indicated that future action may be necessary to bring their long-term goals to fruition.

Here are nine companies so far this year that are making some major organizational moves.

Timken Co., a North Canton, Ohio-based producer of engineered bearings and power transmission components, announced in early January that it will reduce its heavy belt manufacturing work force by 40 percent.

The firm will lay off 97 employees at its Springfield, Mo., facility, according to a Jan. 7 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice. In this notice, Timken said it plans to stagger the layoffs between March 21 and Sept. 30.

A Timken spokesperson told Rubber News that the decision was "based on a continuous review of our long-term capacity plans, cost competitiveness and customer demand."

He added that the company will provide support for the affected employees.

Global chemical producer and converter Nitto Inc. announced three closures in several WARN notices filed Jan. 8.

The company, which specializes in foams, rubbers, plastics and adhesives, said it will shutter plants in Alabama, Ohio and Virginia, impacting nearly 290 jobs. The company added, however, that it will open a new facility in Frankfort, Ky., where it will add 220 jobs, resulting in a net loss of about 70 positions.

The company is closing a fabrication facility in Jasper, Ala., affecting 56 jobs; a production plant in Piqua, Ohio, affecting 147 jobs; and a Nitto Denko Corp. manufacturing location in Chesapeake, Va., affecting 86 jobs.

A small number of employees from the Piqua and Chesapeake locations will be transferred to the greenfield Frankfort facility, according to Nitto, which is set to open this spring.

Japan-based Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. has announced two closures since the beginning of the year.

The company announced in January that it will close its off-highway tire (OHT) manufacturing plant in Prague, Czech Republic, by June, impacting 270 jobs. And on Feb. 18, the company filed a notice that it will permanently close its Yokohama Trelleborg Wheel Systems (TWS) facility in Spartanburg, S.C., by the end of March, affecting 90 employees.

Yokohama acquired both facilities in 2023 as a result of its $2.3 billion acquisition of TWS.

For the Prague facility, Yokohama said it will move its production of cross-ply OHT to other plants and will have discussions about providing support to its affected employees.

For the Spartanburg plant, Yokohama said capacity would shift to the company's TWS plant in Charles City, Iowa, and its European plants. As for the employees, who are not unionized, the company said it will "abide by all rules" and work to assist them with job placement.

The closures are part of Yokohama TWS' three-pillar strategy of "product innovations, digitalization and optimizing," Marc Margossian, business development director for Yokohama TWS North America, told Tire Business, a Rubber News sister publication.

These closures follow the tire maker's November 2024 announcement to close its plant in Hadera, Israel, by year-end, which had a work force of 474.

Bridgestone Americas Inc. will close its 53-year-old La Vergne, Tenn., truck/bus tire plant by July 31, impacting 700 employees. The tire maker said it will also undertake additional work force reductions at its Des Moines, Iowa, farm tire plant, in addition to corporate and sales positions.

The move is intended to streamline Bridgestone's operations and optimize its footprint in North and Central America.

Production from the La Vergne plant, which has a capacity of around 2 million tires per year, will be "shared among several existing plants," the company told Rubber News in an emailed statement, without specifying which facilities will make up the production losses.

"No jobs are being transferred to or added at other locations," the tire maker said.

This closure comes about six months after Bridgestone announced capacity and work force reductions at its Des Moines plant, which included 118 layoffs.

H.B. Fuller is eyeing $75 million in cost savings over the next five years with a major restructuring.

CEO and President Celeste Mastin said the global chemical distributor plans to consolidate its global and North American footprint through this multi-year plan.

By 2030, H.B. Fuller expects to reduce the number of manufacturing facilities from today's 82 to a target of 55, and by the end of 2027 it plans to streamline its warehouses in North America from 55 today to 10.

"Our manufacturing footprint consolidation, coupled with our planning and logistics reorganization, are important steps in our strategic plan to achieve an EBITDA margin consistently greater than 20 percent," Mastin said.

The moves, he added, also will help the company "better serve our customers and reduce future capital expenditure requirements."

Auto supplier Inoac Exterior Systems L.L.C. began the previously announced layoffs from its Fremont, Ohio, plant, which the company plans to close by the third quarter of 2025, with a mass reduction of 174 employees.

The layoffs will begin March 18 and may continue for up to 14 days, Inoac reported in a Jan. 18 WARN notice.

Kevin Kinsey, vice president of purchasing and supply chain at Inoac, said in a memo to suppliers that the company will consolidate its manufacturing footprint in North America to existing facilities in Livingston, Tenn., and Toronto.

None of the affected employees, including mostly assembly and paint line operators, have bumping rights, according to the WARN notice.

Flooring and sports surfaces maker Tarkett USA Inc. will close its distribution center in Middlefield, Ohio, with layoffs beginning Feb. 28, according to a Jan. 24 WARN notice.

The closure impacts 92 jobs, 80 of which are represented by the Teamsters Local Union 507.

The company told sister publication Crain's Cleveland Business that the closures are intended to consolidate operations to a new facility in Columbus.

"It was an extremely difficult decision that we did not make lightly," Winn Everhart, president and CEO of Tarkett North America, said in a statement to Crain's. "We are working with union officials to ensure that affected employees receive severance payments and benefits, and we are committed to supporting them through this transition."

Materials giant Dow Inc. announced in late January that it will reduce its work force by 1,500 globally in a $1 billion cost reduction plan.

The Midland, Mich.-based company "recognizes the macroeconomic environment has been challenging, not just for Dow, but across the industry," Chief Financial Officer Jeff Tate told sister publication Plastics News Jan. 30.

The company said the reduction will cut the company's costs while "reinforcing its long-term competitiveness."

Tate said the jobs cuts would be "very targeted at lower margin regions."

Dow Chairman and CEO Jim Fitterling said in a news release that while the cuts were a "difficult" decision necessary to improve the company's performance, Dow "will continue to evaluate options to reinforce our competitiveness and take further action if necessary."

Continental A.G. launched a major restructuring of its ContiTech business, impacting about 580 jobs across several facilities, intended to streamline and right size the company amid changing markets.

The move includes the closure of three German plants in Bad Blankenburg (185 jobs), Moers (47 jobs) and Stolzenau (110 jobs), as well as a dual location in Frohburg and Geithain (58 jobs).

Conti also intends to scale back activities at its future independent business area Original Equipment Solutions in Hamburg, Germany (53 of 107 jobs), as well as relocate a production line from its Hanover-Vahrenwald location (126 jobs) to an automotive site in preparation for its Automotive group spin-off.

Continental also announced Feb. 18 that it plans to reduce its research and development work force by 3,000 within its Automotive Group sector by the end of 2026.

This reduction, about 10 percent of the company's R&D work force, will impact workers on a global scale, with less than half of the reductions in Germany, the company said, adding that it plans to approach the cuts in a "socially responsible" manner, cutting as many jobs as possible through attrition.