Laid off from PPG.

What PPG layoffs have meant for employees

If you work at a business PPG Industries bought, the plant closings since 2025 are the part of PPG's record closest to home. Each of the three in our tracker came at an acquired company. MetoKote had been PPG's since 2016, Finishing & Coating noted. PPG bought Whitford in 2019, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Ozark Materials had been in PPG's hands for only a few months when the Greenville, Alabama, notice went out, after PPG said in April that it wanted the company to expand its pavement marking business, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. PPG's 2024 annual report lists consolidating operations that came from acquisitions among the things its restructuring charges cover. It's a bitter turn when a deal was pitched as growth.

PPG's explanations have sounded almost the same from one site to the next. In Elverson a spokesperson said the company "continually evaluates its production footprint" and that the move would bring customers "consistent product quality and faster, more reliable service" while reducing costs, the Inquirer reported. On the MetoKote closing PPG said it "continually evaluates its operating footprint," and the Alabama statement repeated the line about consistent quality and faster, more reliable service. The finance chief was plainer when the cost program was announced in October 2024. PPG was making "structural changes to our footprint" and had to "move production around," he said on the earnings call, as Manufacturing Dive quoted him. The Elverson notice read the same way, with the plant's adhesives, sealants and coatings to be made elsewhere. If a closing reaches your plant, statements like these describe PPG's production map, and the details that matter for your own job sit in the notice and in whatever plan documents apply to you.

When a PPG closing has come with a chance at another PPG job, the choice in front of people hasn't been simple. A transfer can be a lifeline for one family and impossible for another, depending on the distance and the shift, and a plant in the same region can still be a long drive from home. If you're offered one, it's worth asking for the location, pay and start date in writing, and you can ask whether turning it down affects any severance you'd otherwise get.

The money shows restructuring at PPG is still running. At the end of June 2026, PPG still carried $192 million in restructuring reserves, primarily severance and other cash costs, and expected most approved actions and their cash outlays to be done in 2026 and 2027, its second-quarter 2026 report said. PPG paid out $28 million of that reserve in the first half of 2026 alone, so money from these programs is still being paid out. By our count of its filings, PPG approved new restructuring actions in every year from 2022 through the first half of 2026. If you're still at PPG, that pattern is worth having in mind when you think about how much cash to keep on hand, even though it can't tell you which site, if any, comes next.

If a notice does come to your site, our unemployment pages for Alabama, Pennsylvania and South Carolina cover the states where PPG's recent closings sit. PPG's units have filed under their own names, so you can search our WARN tracker under MetoKote and Ozark Materials as well as PPG. If you joined PPG through one of its purchases and any severance you're offered turns on years of service, as it did for salaried staff in PPG's {L('2022 Indiana WARN notice','inw')}, you can ask HR whether your years before the deal count.

A sourced history of PPG layoffs

• September 2026, Ozark Materials plant in Greenville, Alabama

  Ozark Materials, a pavement-marking paint maker PPG had bought for $65 million earlier that year, filed notice September 21 to close its Greenville plant, with 52 layoffs effective November 30, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

• August 2025, Whitford plant in Elverson, Pennsylvania

  The plant's 82 jobs were set to end in waves from August 18 through December 2026 under a notice tying the closing to a global initiative on structural costs. Workers were to be offered transfers to other PPG sites, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

• April 2025, MetoKote coating plant in Greenville, South Carolina

  MetoKote's Greenville electrocoating plant had notice dated April 1 for a June 1 closing and 113 lost jobs, per South Carolina's 2025 WARN report. PPG said it was right-sizing its coatings services operations, Finishing & Coating reported.

• October 2024, cost program cutting about 1,800 positions

  The program targeted structural costs primarily in Europe and corporate costs left after PPG sold two businesses, with facility closures and a net cut primarily in Europe and the U.S. PPG booked $239 million for severance and other cash costs, its 2024 annual report shows.

• 2022, restructuring plan to right-size headcount

  With demand softening in Europe and China's recovery slower than expected, PPG approved a restructuring plan that included right-sizing employee headcount and trimming functional and administrative costs, its 2024 annual report records.

• January 2022, Lafayette, Indiana, plant closing

  About 54 hourly and salaried jobs were set to end with the plant's September 30, 2022 closing. Nobody had bumping rights, though salaried staff could apply at other PPG sites in the region, PPG's WARN notice to Indiana said.

What to do if you're laid off from PPG

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. PPG's biggest hubs: Pennsylvania, Alabama, 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 PPG's hub states run: Pennsylvania, Alabama, 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.