Sonoco to close nine plants in restructuring

Sonoco (Hartsville, SC) announced its restructuring program to reduce annual costs by closing nine of its plants. The program will permanently reduce annual costs by $25 to $30 million. It is expected that the restructuring would lead to global reduction of 235 salaried positions and 252 hourly positions. Some of the reduction would be the result of not filling the existing positions or through retirements. The company expected that one-time charges related to restructuring in the 1st quarter of 2001 would be approximately $30 million.