2 days Ago
Tupperware has sealed a timeline for its exit from rural South Carolina after a nearly 50-year run. The countdown begins this week. After ironing out a legal scuffle with its landlord, the new owner of the iconic kitchen container maker will start terminating the remaining 102 workers at its sprawling Hemingway operation on April 4.
Three more waves of layoffs will follow, according to a Todd Greener, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer for Party Products LLC, which plucked Tupperware from bankruptcy in late November. Crews of inspectors, material handlers and packing operators make up most of the jobs at the 1.1 million-square-foot manufacturing and warehousing site at 248 Tupperware Road, southeast of downtown Hemingway.
The others include one trainee, a human resources director, two accountants and five team leaders. Tupperware Brands helped create the food-storage products industry starting after World War II. "We appreciate the many years of service that the employees of our Hemingway facility, and our goal is work with you in this transition," Greener wrote March 4 in a letter to state, county and town officials.
"We are working to facilitate potential employment opportunities through jobs fairs and more. This is in addition to the benefit and severance packages eligible employees will receive." The closing notice is an update to a previous layoff warning that Tupperware Brands Corp.
submitted to the S.C. Department of Employment & Workforce.
In June, the company predicted it would shutter its only U.S. manufacturing site by Jan.
14, 2025, eliminating 148 jobs in the process. Tupperware said at the time its plan was to move production from South Carolina to Mexico, where it already makes most items for the North American market. A few months later, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, leading to its sale the day before Thanksgiving to a group of its financial backers.
The Party Products loan consortium, including the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, acquired key pieces of the broken business and worldwide rights to the brand, “as well as operations in core geographic markets.” The new owners have yet to disclose many details other than to say they'll "be focused initially on offering Tupperware products in certain core markets throughout the globe.” Founded in 1946 by chemist Earl Tupper, the business made its name by marketing its sealable food containers at living-room socials in the post-World War II era.
It set up shop in the South Carolina in 1976 to serve a growing customer base east of the Mississippi River. By the early 1990s, the Hemingway factory was an economic bedrock, with up to 1,300 workers churning out tens of millions of colorful plastic kitchen products each year. But tastes eventually changed — and sales suffered, partly because Tupperware missed the online shopping boat.
About two years ago, the then-publicly traded company warned shareholders it was on the brink of collapse . Its sale to Party Products last fall pushed back the timing of the planned Pee dee pullout while also triggering a short-lived real estate showdown. When Tupperware sold the factory for $15 million in 2023 to raise cash, it agreed to lease the site back through last year, with the option to stay up to six more months.
The terms got fuzzy after Party Products arrived on the scene. In a court filing , property owner Phoenix Investors argued that its lease with Tupperware ran out Dec. 31 while also saying it was owed $344,000 from bills that predated the bankruptcy.
The tiff was settled in January, after Party Products came to an agreement that included a $300,000 check to the Milwaukee-based landlord. Tupperware's new ownership said it needed to remain in Hemingway well past the end of 2024 to wind down the business. "It will take .
...
several more months to fully move the equipment and inventory off the property," according to a court filing . The company also noted that it's been working with Phoenix Investors to help sell the real estate. It's been allowing prospective buyers to tour the site, which will be empty soon enough.
Tupperware's final day is now set for June 13..
