Projo Biz Blog

PROVIDENCE _ Portola Tech International, the Woonsocket manufacturer of packaging for the cosmetic and personal care industries, will lay off 130 of its 231 employees and move to Cumberland, the company said Thursday.

The company is moving from the city's historic Alice Mill Factory on Fairmount Street to a more modern plant on Martin Street in Cumberland, Dan Carter, the company's vice president for sales, said.

He said that some of the processes now operating in Woonsocket will move to the company's manufacturing facilities in the Czech Republic and in Shanghai. That's partly because the company's markets have shifted to those regions, he said, and customers there want their supply lines shortened. Also, some processes that are no longer competitive in the US remain so in Asia, he said.

Carter said the layoffs will affect both salaried and hourly workers and will probably take place in November. He said that the company is offering the terminated employees severance packages. Although manufacturing operations will be moved abroad, he said that no jobs will be moved out of the U.S.

"They're good, hard-working people caught in this economic crunch," he said of the workers.

 Tags  Portola Tech International Woonsocket RI

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