The Tropicana glass bottle plant in Bradenton, Florida, closed 28 February 2003 with the loss of 220 jobs. Tropicana announced the closure in November 2001, saying consumers increasingly prefer plasti…
The Tropicana glass bottle plant in Bradenton, Florida, closed 28 February 2003 with the loss of 220 jobs. Tropicana announced the closure in November 2001, saying consumers increasingly prefer plastic drink containers over glass ones. “We“re really quite sad that consumer preference for plastic is eliminating the need for the glass plant, because glass was such a big part of our heritage,” Tropicana spokeswoman Kristine Nickel said. Up to 525 employees worked at the plant, which at its peak had three operating furnaces. The bottles produced were used for Tropicana and other beverages. Although Tropicana opened a plastics plant in 1969, glass remained its preferred container material. But the beginning of the marketplace“s move toward plastic prompted Tropicana to close one of the furnaces in 1991, with the loss of 42 jobs. Another furnace was shut down in 2000, with about 100 employees reassigned to other parts of Tropicana“s large complex in east Bradenton. “For the most part, it“s become a plastic-bottle world in the beverage industry,” said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, a biweekly industry magazine. Tropicana“s last furnace shut down when a 10 year-old joint venture with Saint-Gobain Containers Inc. expired at midnight on 28 February 2003. The plant was run by Saint-Gobain which provides technology and support but the land on which the plant stands is owned by Tropicana, which also employed the workers. Tropicana initially said it planned to demolish the plant and replace it with new, unspecified manufacturing space, but Nickel said 26 February 2003 the company had not yet decided what it will do. About 65 plant employees are eligible for retirement, she said. Other glass makers, including Saint-Gobain have been invited to interview employees and Tropicana has worked with local economic-development officials and vocational schools to offer job re-training, Nickel said. However, many employees said their futures were unknown. Only a few have found other jobs within Tropicana or with Saint-Gobain, and many of the others have ruled out working for other glass-makers because it would mean relocating to other states.