Tupperware, the iconic American brand known the world over for its plastic food containers, is closing its last US factory.
The 78-tear-old company, who intially sold its products at parties thrown by surburban housewives, plans to take advantage of cheaper wages in Mexico.
The factory in the small town of Hemingway in South Carolina has produced billions of the kitchen-cabinet staples since it opened 48 years ago.
The closure – which was announced Thursday and will take effect later this year – is a huge blow to the 148 workers at the Williamsburg County plant.
Production will be moved to Lerma in Mexico, where the company says it already makes items for the US and Canada.
Tupperware was founded in 1946 by chemist Earl Tupper – whose airtight pastic containers helped food last longer for families still struggling after the war and the Great Depression.
An employee at Tupperware’s factory in Hemmingway, South Carolina
The small town of Hemmingway will be hit by the factory’s closure
It opened the South Carolina factory in April 1976 to meet demand east of the Mississippi River as the company rapidly grew.
After Tupperware threatened to relocate to Tennessee in 1993, the state offred tax breaks – and the company stayed.
The company stayed, and the number of workers grew to 1,300.
By then, the 900-000 square food plant was producing 173 million tubs and containers made of Tupperware’s trademark colorful plastic.
As big box retailers offered their own versions, sales dipped and there were layoffs – 300 in 1996 and 250 in 2005, according to the local Post & Courier.
https://www.postandcourier.com/business/tupperware-hemingway-south-carolina-pee-dee-layoffs/article_4531a4a2-29aa-11ef-8301-c7c07b5ac375.html
The layoffs follow a tough year for the 80 year old company, which is headquartered in Orland, Florida.
In April, Tupperware warned it had ‘substantial doubt’ it could sty in business due to waning demand for its plastic containers and mounting debt. In a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the firm said it was in a ‘challenging financial condition’.
That announcement came just days after the New York Stock Exchange said that Tupperware’s stock was at risk of being delisted because the company had failed to file the mandatory annual report.
Bosses say they will offer early retirement and a payoff to eligible staff, plus try to find them work at other local businesses.
‘It’s important to note this decision is not a reflection of the performance of the Hemingway team,’ the company said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘The compnay has always been a business focused on people, so we will take important steps to take care of our Hemingway team.’
Tupperware had sold the Hemmingway plant last fall to a real estate investment company for $15 million, and then leased it back.
After Earl Tupper founded the company in in 1946, its products soared in popularity throughout the 1950s.
This was thanks in part to its iconic ‘Tupperware parties’, in which a salesperson would visit somebody’s home to demonstrate and sell the containers.
Those parties have captured the popular imagination ever since.
For example, Dixie Longate is a drag queen persona known as ‘Tupperware Lady’. She is played by the actor Kris Andersson and known for her comic skits in which she sells the plastic wares.
Production will be moved to Tupperware’s factory in Mexico
Dixie Longate aka the Tupperware Lady performs in Westwood, California
Tupperware Brands has indicated its business may not survive in an SEC filing on Friday
A group of unspecified women attend a Tupperware party, some wearing hats fashioned from Tupperware products, in around 1955
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a boost in Tupperware sales as families stayed indoors and cooked more meals at home.
Since then, the company has suffered from poor sales and accrued increasing debt, causing its share price to slide to its lowest-ever levels.
It was trading at $1.50 on Friday, down from a high of almost $100 in 2013.
The company first raised substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern nearly a year ago.
Since then, it appointed consumer goods industry veteran Laurie Ann Goldman as its CEO.