Laid off from Sonoco.

What Sonoco layoffs have meant for employees

If you're still at Sonoco, its June 2026 quarterly report says additional restructuring actions are likely, and its 2025 annual report sets a goal of significant cost savings over the next three years through operational improvements, commercial excellence and structural transformation. The company around you has changed, too. By its own count it went from 20 businesses to two core segments, and after its 2025 sales and its purchase of Eviosys at the end of 2024, more of its people worked in Europe than in the US as 2025 closed, a reversal of where its workforce had historically been.

In two of Sonoco's closings, the work outlived the plant. Other Sonoco mills were to keep serving Sumner's customers, Packaging Dive reported, and part of Laon's work was headed to the company's Nantes plant, according to Eurofound. The workers' options were narrower. At Fremont, Sonoco's Indiana WARN letter ruled out bumping rights, and at Memphis the union contract carried none either. If you'd consider moving for work, applying for openings elsewhere in Sonoco is an option on record, since Scarborough's workers were eligible to apply for other Sonoco openings, if any existed, the Portland Press Herald reported.

The public timelines of these closings have varied by site. Kansas's rapid response coordinator received the Hutchinson mill's WARN notice the same Monday KSN reported the mill had closed, while Sonoco's Memphis letter set out closing activities that could run for a year, as Packaging Dive described it. Fremont's letter set two separation dates, and Scarborough's plant was to keep operating while its closing approached. If your site's notice lists more than one date, you can time a job search or a move to the date that applies to your role, which may come before the plant's last day.

The reasons Sonoco gave for these closings turned on costs and demand. A spokesperson tied the Scarborough closing to continued cost inflation and lower sales in the folding carton market, and Sonoco put the Sumner closing down to its strategy to optimize its mill network and lower operating costs. In France, the Laon factory was set to close even though Eurofound describes it as profitable, on grounds of global competitiveness and labor costs compared with Asian rivals.

If your position was one of the yearly eliminations rather than part of a closing, it registers in Sonoco's 10-K restructuring note inside a single count of employees for the year, set apart from the plants it closed. The severance and termination benefits Sonoco charged rose every year from 2023 through 2025. Those are company-wide accounting figures that take in Europe and the rest of the world as well as the United States, so they measure the cutting Sonoco booked rather than any one person's package.

A Sonoco notice in our WARN tracker may be filed under RTS Packaging, the partitions maker Sonoco took full control of by buying out WestRock's stake. That venture made three filings from 2009 to 2011. Our count also keeps the thermoforming plants Sonoco shut itself before it sold that business to Toppan in 2025, Exeter and Fremont among them, because none of them passed to the buyer. For the four states with Sonoco filings in the tracker since 2023, the details on filing a claim are on California unemployment benefits, Washington unemployment benefits, Indiana unemployment benefits and Maine unemployment benefits.

A sourced history of Sonoco layoffs

• First half of 2026, organizational effectiveness cuts

  Severance booked in the first half of 2026 covered about 165 eliminated positions, Sonoco's 10-Q for the half shows, plus more for a French metal packaging plant closed the year before.

• October 2025, Laon, France can-lid plant closing

  Sonoco announced on October 8 that its Laon plant would close in January 2026, with 115 planned job losses among 128 employees, a third of the jobs slated for its Nantes site and two-thirds for Italy and Hungary, Eurofound records.

• 2025, organizational effectiveness cuts and plant closings

  Sonoco eliminated the positions of about 450 employees in 2025, its 10-K restructuring note shows, apart from closing metal can plants in France and Spain, a paper mill in Mexico, cone plants in Taiwan and Mexico, and partitions plants in Maine and California.

• May 2025, California closing notice for 46 jobs

  Sonoco filed a California closing notice dated May 1, 2025, for 46 jobs, with an effective date of August 31, according to our WARN tracker.

• March 2025, Scarborough, Maine partitions plant closing

  Sonoco told employees on March 13 that its RTS Packaging plant in Scarborough would close within months, laying off 67 workers, the Portland Press Herald reported, and a spokesperson said they were eligible to apply for other Sonoco jobs where openings may exist.

• 2024, Sumner mill closing and positions eliminated

  Sonoco said in February it was closing its Sumner, Washington paperboard mill effective immediately, with severance benefits for its 55 employees, Packaging Dive reported. Its 10-K restructuring note books 2024 severance for that closing, Greece's Kilkis mill, plants in China and Canada and about 300 eliminated positions.

• January 2024, Memphis ends and closures plant notice

  Sonoco planned potentially year-long closing activities at a Memphis ends and closures plant from February 1, according to its January 30 WARN letter to Tennessee, Packaging Dive reported, and the 62 workers' union contract carried no bumping rights.

• October 2023, Fremont, Indiana thermoforming plant closing

  Sonoco expected separations at its Fremont plant on December 15, 2023 and June 30, 2024 as it closed the plant permanently, its October 10 WARN letter to Indiana said, noting no union or bumping rights, and a spokesperson told Inside INdiana Business the workers would receive a severance package and outplacement assistance.

• March 2023, Hutchinson, Kansas paper mill closing

  Sonoco's Hutchinson paper mill had closed by March 6, KSN reported, and Kansas's rapid response coordinator said the WARN notice he received that Monday listed 116 affected employees.

What to do if you're laid off from Sonoco

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Sonoco's biggest hubs: California, Washington, Indiana, Maine. 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 Sonoco's hub states run: California, Washington, Indiana, Maine, 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.