Muncie packager laying off half its workforce
MUNCIE – A southside Muncie packaging company is laying off hundreds of workers.
DIY Group, which packages products and displays for national manufacturers and retailers, recently notified officials that due to the loss of an important contract it will permanently lay off 261 employees over the next few months.
"That's roughly half our workforce," DIY president Phil Durham told The Star Press on Friday.
More than 200 people will continue on the DIY workforce, Durham said, at the company's 26th Street plant on Muncie's south side, and at plants in the Chicago area and Huntington, Ind. The notice sent to the state specified the layoffs would come from the company's Muncie plant.
"DIY will continue as a company," said Durham, whose family founded the company in 1983.
In a notice of mass layoff filed with state and Delaware County authorities, the company cited the loss of a contract with Jarden Home Brands for the permanent layoffs.
In July, Jarden announced it was moving its corporate headquarters from Daleville to the Indianapolis area, citing growth that had outstripped its Daleville space. That move takes 100 employees out of Daleville, although Jarden still has 120 workers at a south Muncie plant.
"We're obviously going to work to rebuild the sales lost with Jarden," Durham said Friday. "We've got a plan and we're moving forward."
DIY is fairly unique among local manufacturing/production operations in that it operated in a huge facility and fulfilled contracts with a variety of companies.
In a 2008 article in The Star Press, company officials said DIY's 568,000-square-foot facilities in the Industria Centre industrial park saw 200 million items packaged and shipped each year.
The company at that time packaged tools, DVD cases, pet supplies and many other products. Manufacturers shipped finished products to DIY for packaging in plastic packages. DIY also builds and fills cardboard displays for stores.
Stores with DIY products in them include Target, Lowes, Walmart, Best Buy and Costco.
In its notice, DIY said employees would be laid off beginning as early as Oct. 15 and continuing through April 1, 2015. The company said the affected workers are from DIY's Jarden hand pack lines and Jarden automated lines as well as fork lift operators and support staff.
The employees are not represented by a union, and DIY said it would cooperate with WorkOne on employee assistance, job retraining, job search and other benefits.
Contact Keith Roysdon at 765-213-5828 and follow him on Twitter: @keithroysdon