Laid off from Ardagh Glass Packaging.

What Ardagh Glass Packaging layoffs have meant for employees

Ardagh's closing announcements have answered the customer's question first. For customers the closings were a change of address. In 2024 it said Houston's customers would be supplied from its remaining US plants and Seattle's wine customers from the rest of its US network, in statements Packaging Dive carried. In 2023 it said Wilson's and Simsboro's customers would be supplied from alternative locations, Glass International reported. When The Advocate asked what Ardagh planned for the Simsboro workers, officials didn't immediately respond. If a job at another Ardagh plant comes up, it's worth setting beside what Wilson employees told WRAL in 2023, that for many of them theirs was the second plant Ardagh had closed in the past decade.

Ardagh told investors before the 2023 closings that it would run fewer furnaces. In a February earnings call before the Bud Light controversy, its chief executive, Paul Coulson, said Ardagh would be closing some plants and that once its turnaround program was done it would operate fewer furnaces, larger and more efficient on average, WRAL reported. At Wilson a mechanic said a couple of machines had been down since April, before the June closing announcement. Ruston had already lost jobs in 2018, when Ardagh cited a growing plastics market and state officials hoped the layoffs would be temporary, The Advocate reported, and Seattle's curtailment came before its permanent closing, as Packaging Dive's November 2024 report set out. If your Ardagh plant has lost a line or a round of jobs, it's worth knowing that cuts like those came before the closings at Wilson, Ruston and Seattle, and you might weigh looking at other work before any notice arrives rather than after.

Ardagh's own figures for the North American business have pointed one way through these closings. Its chief executive cited a 9% drop in North American shipments in that February call, Packaging Dive put the region's first-quarter 2024 revenue at $386 million against $434 million a year before, and the company's October 2026 results showed shipments down again in the third quarter. Those figures measure glass sales across the region, not jobs at any one plant, so they're context for the closings rather than a signal about a particular site.

The dates in Ardagh's closing papers have been estimates. Its January 2019 release gave Lincoln's closing an "on or after" date, and Dolton's closing date moved up after the notice went out, by a supplemental the state recorded in its March 2025 report. Dolton's supplemental changed the schedule and added no workers. Ardagh also said some Seattle employees "will remain actively employed for some period of time" even as the first dismissals were set to begin, so the first date on a notice wasn't everyone's last day. If you have an Ardagh notice in hand, Dolton is a reason to leave room in your plans for the plant's schedule to change after the notice goes out.

The newest US cut on record surfaced through a county office. Madera's workforce center, whose director told FOX26 that it learns of many layoffs from workers who come in on their own, had confirmed by February 2026 that Ardagh workers there were let go, and it set up orientation sessions for them with career counseling, connections to local employers, unemployment guidance and training information. That help was set up for workers whose cut was a production line rather than a whole plant. For an unemployment claim, the rules for each state are at unemployment benefits by state.

A sourced history of Ardagh Glass Packaging layoffs

• February 2025, Dolton, Illinois plant closing

  Ardagh's Dolton closing notice reached Illinois February 4 with first layoffs set for May 1, and a supplemental received March 25 moved the closing to March 24, Illinois's March 2025 report shows, listing a union and no bumping rights.

• November 2024, Seattle wine bottle plant permanent closing

  Ardagh moved to close the Seattle plant for good, with layoffs of 245 workers starting November 7, Packaging Dive reported, and blamed the trade commission's vote against the wine bottle import petition it had brought with the United Steelworkers.

• June 2024, Houston closing and Seattle curtailment

  Ardagh said it would close its Houston plant, bought from Anheuser-Busch in 2021, over beer market conditions, with 220 workers on a Texas notice, and announced an indefinite Seattle curtailment putting 244 on at least temporary layoff from July 1, Packaging Dive reported.

• June 2023, Wilson, North Carolina and Simsboro, Louisiana closings

  Ardagh announced both closings, effective mid-July 2023, in response to what it called recent weakness in market demand, Glass International reported; Wilson employed 400. Its Louisiana notice expected the loss of Simsboro's 257 jobs to be permanent, The Advocate reported.

• January 2019, Lincoln, Illinois plant closing

  Ardagh said it would permanently stop production at Lincoln, which employed about 150, on or after April 30, serving its customers from other North American plants, in a January 31 release that called the move a footprint adjustment.

• July 2014, Salem, New Jersey plant closing

  Ardagh announced it would shut Salem's plant, the city's last bottle maker, on October 15 with 290 jobs to go, an Associated Press story said; Ardagh had taken it over two years earlier by buying Anchor Glass.

What to do if you're laid off from Ardagh Glass Packaging

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Ardagh Glass Packaging's biggest hubs: Illinois, Washington, Texas, California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Ardagh Glass Packaging's hub states run: Illinois, Washington, Texas, California, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.