Tredegar Film Products will downsize its manufacturing facility in Lake Zurich, IL. The facility, which currently employs 134 people, is expected to downsize over the next two years as products are transferred to other film products manufacturing facilities.

Mary Jane Hellyar, president of Tredegar Film Products, says: “This was a difficult decision to make, and we regret the impact that it will have on our employees in Lake Zurich; in particular, I want to recognize their dedication and significant contributions to films. While our intent has been to generate sufficient new business to maintain all of our domestic plants, the reality is that we see most of our growth coming from markets outside of North America—and we expect this trend to continue.

“We have made significant capacity investments in developing markets to better meet our customers’ demands for local supply,” she adds. “As we reduce films’ footprint in the U.S., we will be transferring most of Lake Zurich’s volume to our other manufacturing facilities over the next two years. Lake Zurich’s capability for elastic laminates and certain elastics films will remain operational. We will work closely with our customers to ensure that they receive the quality and service they have come to expect from Tredegar.”

Among the top global leaders in the plastic films industry, Tredegar Film Products manufactures plastic films, elastics, and laminate materials for the personal care, electronic display, flexible packaging, lighting and other specialty film markets. With a global research and development structure and locations throughout North America, Europe, Asia and South America, Tredegar Film Products provides local support and innovative solutions to meet its customers’ needs.

In March, Tredegar announced it would add to its elastic laminates capacity in Terre Haute, IN. This investment would expand the scope of the company’s FlexAire products for adult incontinence items and baby diapers.