Laid off from Greif.

What Greif layoffs have meant for employees

A closing that makes the news is only part of what Greif reports about itself. Its fiscal 2022 10-K and fiscal 2025 report count employees severed and plants closed or divested for each year, across the whole company, so a yearly figure takes in every segment and not one mill. The two counts measure different things, since the plant figure includes sites sold as well as sites closed, and the busiest year for one wasn't the busiest for the other. If you're trying to gauge how deep Greif's cuts have run, the employee count tells you more than the plant count does.

The paperboard closings have carried several stated reasons. Greif tied the A1 machine to costs and falling demand from books, binders and furniture, and Fitchburg to high operating costs and the capital the site needed, according to Packaging Dive's January 2025 report. Los Angeles and Sweetwater share a phrase, limited integration, in Packaging Dive's Los Angeles report and Packaging Dive's Sweetwater report. Gaylord Benner, who runs sustainable fiber solutions, said Greif's investments in uncoated paperboard will direct capital toward assets "well positioned to serve our customers," which is a line about money and orders, not a promise about any mill's jobs.

Greif has tried to hold on to the orders when it lets a site go. Customer business from the January 2025 closings was to move to other Greif locations, Rock Hill's capacity was to shift to five named sites, Packaging Dive's 2023 report said, and Greif aims to keep serving Sweetwater's uncoated customers through its other mills. For anyone at a closing site, that's a reason to look at where the work is headed, though orders moving isn't the same as a job moving with them. If your site's work is moving, you could keep a dated note of any opening you're told about and who told you.

Looking up a notice takes more than the word Greif. The Fitchburg and Los Angeles notices sit under The Newark Group, which Greif acquired as a Caraustar subsidiary, its fiscal 2019 10-K says, and the 2026 Austell row sits under Caraustar Mill Group. You can look under those names too in our WARN filings. State and company figures can differ too. Greif put Los Angeles at about 72 employees, while California's WARN report lists 74. Rock Hill reportedly employed about 90 people, and its tracker row listed 71 jobs, which are two separate measures, so neither one stands in for the other.

As of June 2026, Greif still expected more restructuring costs from open plans and from plans not yet announced, its quarterly filing says, and it described 2026's restructuring as managing a historical period of industrial activity contraction. That filing came before the Sweetwater announcement, so it shows more spending ahead across the company rather than at any one plant. The three-year cost plan announced in December 2024 runs to the end of fiscal 2027, when Greif aims to have cut $120 million, that same Sweetwater report said.

At Sweetwater the state notice lists two expected separation dates beside Greif's plan to close the mill by the end of 2026, so the announcement alone won't settle when any one job ends. If you work there and get a letter, you could line up your next steps against the date it gives, not the year-end date in the announcement. The state's side of this sits at Georgia unemployment benefits.

A sourced history of Greif layoffs

• September 2026, Sweetwater mill closing announced

  A state notice listed 95 employees at the Austell mill, with expected separation dates of November 16 and March 24, Packaging Dive reported. Greif said it will provide severance benefits and other resources, and that the mill had limited integration within its network and failed to be competitive.

• Fiscal 2025, seven plants and 500 employees

  Greif's fiscal 2025 report counted seven plants closed or divested and 500 employees severed in the 11-month year, which ended September 30, 2025.

• Fiscal fourth quarter 2025, professional roles eliminated

  About 8% of professional roles, or 190 positions, had been eliminated as of quarter end, chief executive Ole Rosgaard said on the November 2025 earnings call. The plan Greif announced in December 2024 included cutting 10% of that workforce, Packaging Dive reported.

• August 2025, Merced drum plant closing announced

  Greif said it planned to permanently close the California plant, which made steel drums and small polymer containers, eliminating 43 jobs and ending operations in September, per Packaging Dive via Yahoo Finance. The chief executive named severance packages and career placement services.

• May 2025, Los Angeles paperboard mill closing announced

  Greif said the June closing would affect about 72 employees, citing increased costs and limited integration opportunities, Packaging Dive reported. California's WARN report lists 74 at the site under Newark Group, Inc.

• January 2025, Fitchburg mill and Austell machine closings announced

  Greif said it would close the Massachusetts mill by the end of May and end production on Austell's A1 machine by the end of March, affecting 140 jobs, Packaging Dive reported. A spokesperson put it at about 70 positions at each site.

• Fiscal 2024, four plants and 126 employees

  Greif's fiscal 2025 report counted four plants closed or divested and 126 employees severed that year, after nine plants and 456 employees in fiscal 2023.

• July 2023, Rock Hill tube and core plant closing

  Greif was closing the Caraustar plant in South Carolina, with the closure expected between September 3 and October 30 and about 90 people employed there, Packaging Dive reported. The tracker row for the site lists 71 jobs.

• Fiscal 2022, seventeen plants and 132 employees

  Greif's fiscal 2022 10-K counted seventeen plants closed or divested and 132 employees severed that year, after five plants and 177 employees in fiscal 2021 and sixteen plants and 658 employees in fiscal 2020.

What to do if you're laid off from Greif

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Greif's biggest hubs: Georgia, California, Massachusetts, South Carolina. 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 Greif's hub states run: Georgia, California, Massachusetts, South Carolina, 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.