The trans-Tasman group said it hopes to redeploy 15 of the central Melbourne factory’s 50 staff. The closure follows the shutdown of Geon’s Docklands plant last month, with its workforce already relocated to Geon’s Mt Waverly supersite.
Brunswick will close on 21 December, while Geon is also shutting a smaller warehousing facility in Tempe, Sydney in February, with all eight staff being offered relocation opportunities and some warehousing also moving to Brisbane.
Geon chief executive Graham Morgan said: “We are committed to providing our employees with open and transparent consultation during this process as well as full support. All staff will have access to all internal opportunities as well as outplacement, external career counseling and job-search assistance on top of our internal HR team support.”
Morgan said that the closures were due to a continued focus on operational efficiencies, press maximisation and cost reduction in the face of challenging industry conditions.
“These changes continue Geon’s transformation plan,” he said.
“Geon must continue to take actions to ensure that we utilise our full capacity across Australia while striving for lowest cost-to-serve. We need to build sustainable manufacturing sites across our footprint, align all of our processes and leverage from our efficiency gains and other business initiatives.”
According to Geon, it is too early to determine what will happen to the machinery at Brunswick, however, it is likely that some equipment will be sold.
The move follows the closure of its NSW plant in Dee Why in July. Geon added that the manufacturing footprint reconfiguration is complete and the continued transformation and improvement of the business will continue over the next six months.
Impact Printing had been owned by the Nankervis family until it was acquired in 2006 by Pacific Print Group, which was renamed Geon in 2007.
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