WestRock was acquired by Ireland-based Smurfit last summer. Photo courtesy of Smurfit Westrock

Smurfit WestRock, a corrugated packaging company headquartered in Dublin, is permanently closing its St. Paul facility and laying off 189 workers, per a WARN notice filed Wednesday. The mill, which produces coated recycled board, is located at 2250 Wabash Avenue.

Employees will be permanently laid off beginning June 30 or soon after. Some affected workers are represented by unions and may receive bumping rights.

The laid-off positions, listed in the WARN notice, include engineers, supervisors, mechanics, and others ranging from chemical attendant to truck driver.

The St. Paul closure is part of wider company shutdowns. Smurfit WestRock is discontinuing production at a containerboard mill in Forney, Texas, according to an April 30 securities filing. And it’s looking to permanently shutter two facilities in Germany. About 650 employees in the United States and Germany will be impacted.

Smurfit WestRock did not immediately respond to outreach.

Prior to yesterday’s announcement, the company was already reducing its footprint. It announced phased layoffs from and the closure of a Portland, Oregon, facility last month, with 72 first-phase layoffs. And it announced 88 layoffs from and the closure of a plant in Bridgeview, Illinois, early this year.

Last summer, Dublin-based Smurfit Kappa acquired Atlanta-based WestRock, becoming Smurfit WestRock—and one of the world’s biggest packaging companies. Not long after, CEO Tony Smurfit announced about 800 positions cut, updated to 1,000 people who had left or were leaving the company by this past February, as reported by Packaging Dive.

As of last summer, the combined company operated in 40 countries, with more than 500 production facilities, 63 mills, and about 100,000 team members globally, according to its website, which reports $32 billion in annual net sales.

Prior to the merger, WestRock had already begun scaling back operations at its St. Paul facility. In fall of 2022, the company announced plans to end corrugated medium manufacturing operations there, although it continued to produce coated recycled board. That move resulted in the loss of 130 jobs at the time.

In 2023, the company’s Fridley plant also permanently closed, reportedly resulting in 70 layoffs. The company website lists remaining locations in Minneapolis, Maple Grove, and St. Cloud.