Sept. 9, 2008, Vancouver, B.C - Owens-Illinois Inc. is closing its glass container plant in Lavington, B.C., cutting 300 jobs, the third Canadian plant closure this year as the U.S. company streamlines operations.

The Ohio-based company had announced plans to shut down a Toronto plant last month, throwing another 430 people out of work. The company also closed a glass bottle factory in Scoudouc, N.B., in March, cutting more than 200 jobs.

Owens-Illinois said Friday the B.C. closure will be effective Oct. 31, with existing production to be transferred to other plants.

About 300 employees at the plant in the B.C. interior, east of Vernon, will be affected, but the company said it will help workers try to find new jobs.

Gene Wirch, business representative for the Teamsters Union Local 213, said finding jobs for the workers in Lavington won't be easy, especially in a community already hard hit by forestry cutbacks.

"This is not a Toronto community. This is a small community and it's going to have an impact on the community itself," Wirch said.

"Trying to replace a lot of jobs in this type of community - it's not likely to happen."

He said staff were surprised by the announcement, which came Friday morning from Owens-Illinois representatives who travelled to the plant from Los Angeles.

The latest cuts expand the company's Canadian workforce reductions to 930 this year.

Like all domestic and foreign-owned manufacturers, Owens-Illinois has been hit by rising energy and transportation costs and the impact of the high Canadian dollar, which makes it tougher to compete in the key American market.

As well, the shift away from glass containers to plastic and other materials is also affecting the company, which has become more profitable in the last year through an efficiency drive, higher prices, improved product mix and lower interest costs.

"This closing was driven by our ongoing global asset utilization process which identified the opportunity to shift our production to other O-I North American facilities, resulting in lower energy consumption and production costs while still meeting current and anticipated market needs," said Scott Murchison, president of the 24,000-employee company's North America glass container division.

In July, the company partly blamed the Liquor Control Board of Ontario for the Toronto closure, effective Sept. 30 - a charge the LCBO flatly rejected.

Owens-Illinois said the high Canadian dollar, soaring energy prices and what a company spokeswoman described as an "anti-glass" container policy at the province's liquor control agency were all factors in the decision.

The New Brunswick plant, formerly known as Consumer's Glass, made bottles for markets all over eastern North America, using mostly recycled glass. Owens-Illinois said at the time it had tried to secure enough business to support the Scoudouc plant but couldn't.

Owens-Illinois has 82 manufacturing plants in 22 countries, including 24 in North America. In 2007, its net sales were US$7.6 billion.

In its second quarter financial report released last month, Owens-Illinois said its second quarter profits from continuing operations rose to US$227.5 million from $153.8 million last year, while sales increased 11 per cent to $2.2 billion from just under $2 billion.