Inline Plastics, a Connecticut-based manufacturer of clear PET food containers, is quietly withdrawing from Michigan just four years after announcing a high-profile expansion into the state.
The decision leaves a small rural city suddenly without a specialized packaging plant it had only recently welcomed. Details of the closure emerged through a legally required WARN notice.
Jobs Vanish
The shutdown in Gladwin, a city of about 3,000 residents in Mid-Michigan, will eliminate all 25 positions at Inline’s facility.
For a county with a relatively small labor pool, the loss of several dozen manufacturing jobs can have a ripple effect on local businesses that depend on workers’ spending. Officials say those jobs will be gone by mid-January 2026.
Midwest Ambition
Inline’s Michigan plant was initially framed as a strategic foothold in the Midwest. In May 2022, the company announced that it had acquired Cam Packaging’s operation in Gladwin, thereby gaining additional thermoforming capacity and a central location to serve regional food customers.
The facility was folded into a network that already stretched from Connecticut to Utah.
Thermoforming Niche
Inline Plastics has built its business around thermoformed plastic packaging for supermarkets, delis, and food processors. Its hallmark Safe-T-Fresh line uses patented tamper-evident and tamper-resistant tear-strip technology for cut fruit, salads, and other ready-to-eat items.
The Gladwin plant was part of that production footprint, intended to shorten lead times for Midwestern customers.
Closure Confirmed
The key nugget appears in a letter filed under the federal WARN Act: Inline Plastics will “totally close” its Gladwin manufacturing facility on January 12, 2026, and the closure “is expected to be permanent.”
The company informed the state that 25 employees will be separated, with all terminations to be completed within two days, starting January 11.
Exiting Michigan
With the closure of the Gladwin facility, Inline will no longer operate any manufacturing sites in Michigan. Instead, the company will continue running plants in Shelton, Connecticut; McDonough, Georgia; and Salt Lake City, Utah, along with an R&D center in Milford, Connecticut.
The decision effectively reverses Inline’s brief experiment with a Midwestern production hub.
No Union, No Safety Net
Inline’s WARN letter spells out one harsh detail for the Gladwin workforce: employees “are not represented by a union and do not have bumping rights.”
That means they cannot displace coworkers with less seniority at another facility to retain employment, leaving affected workers to seek entirely new jobs in a challenging manufacturing labor market.
Small Town Shock
Gladwin County’s population hovers around 25,000, according to recent state economic reports, meaning the direct loss of 25 jobs represents a noticeable share of the local manufacturing base.
While Michigan has overall added payroll jobs in recent years, its official analysis notes that manufacturing and related sectors have experienced some of the sharpest job losses.
Manufacturing Crosscurrents
The Inline closure lands in a mixed moment for Michigan manufacturing. State data indicate that total payroll employment is at its highest level in two decades; however, growth has slowed, and unemployment has risen faster than the national rate.
Auto-related industries, including some plastics and components suppliers, have posted some of the most significant year-over-year job declines.
Hidden Economic Multiplier
The immediate loss is 25 paychecks, but plastics industry research suggests that each manufacturing job can support several more upstream and downstream positions.
A national report estimates that every plastics manufacturing position ultimately supports more than four jobs across suppliers and local services, through both supply-chain purchases and workers’ spending in surrounding communities.
Company Strategy
Inline has been expanding and retrenching across regions for years. The McDonough, Georgia, plant, opened in 2010, was built to handle growing demand for its food packaging lines, while the Utah facility came online earlier as a western hub.
Moving production closer to larger markets and consolidating equipment at higher-capacity sites is a recurring theme in its expansion plans.
Leadership and Legacy
Founded in 1968 and still family-owned, Inline has been led by chairman and CEO Tom Orkisz, who has promoted the firm’s niche in tamper-evident packaging and food safety.
Local coverage has described Inline as a mid-sized manufacturer whose Safe-T-Fresh technology helped transform supermarket deli cases, even as it remains small compared with global packaging conglomerates.
Product Pipeline Continues
Even as it shuts down the Michigan plant, Inline continues to roll out new packaging. In late 2024, the company announced it had completed its Safe-T-Fresh 7-inch Rounds product line, adding multi-compartment designs and higher-capacity containers.
The expansion underscored that demand for tamper-evident containers remains strong, even as production footprints shift geographically.
Consolidation Pressures
Across the broader plastics and packaging sector, analysts say consolidation and portfolio “pruning” are driving more plant closures.
Large mergers, such as megadeals involving Amcor, Berry Global, and other packaging giants, often result in facility rationalizations as companies reduce overlapping capacity and concentrate their investments in a smaller number of high-volume sites.
Fragile Promises
For communities like Gladwin, Inline’s exit highlights how quickly “good news” factory announcements can reverse. State reports describe Michigan’s manufacturing revival as uneven, with overall job growth masking pockets of plant closures and layoffs.
That tension raises questions about how durable such investments really are for smaller towns dependent on a handful of industrial employers.
Policy Spotlight
Economic development agencies typically compete to land projects, such as Inline’s 2022 move into Gladwin, sometimes using grants, tax abatements, or infrastructure support.
While specific incentives for this plant have not been detailed in public filings, the closure may intensify scrutiny on how states structure deals to ensure long-term commitments and clawbacks when employers leave early.
Global Industry Currents
Inline’s decision comes as global plastics and packaging players reshape their networks in response to trade, cost, and sustainability pressures.
Recent reports highlight rising investment in Southeast and Sun Belt U.S. facilities, while some Midwestern and Northern plants are shuttered or consolidated. That shift can redraw supply chains far beyond any single town or state.
Environmental Crosswinds
Plastic packaging is under growing environmental scrutiny, with policy debates over single-use items and recycling targets. Inline promotes its use of certified recycled PET and “reborn” material in products like Safe-T-Fresh, arguing that tamper-evident containers can be both secure and recyclable.
Even so, any plant closure raises questions about where and how such packaging will be produced now.
Workers in Transition
For the 25 Gladwin employees, the closure means navigating a regional job market where manufacturing roles coexist with rising service and logistics positions.
State employment reports indicate that while Michigan has added hundreds of thousands of payroll jobs since the pandemic, the mix is shifting, and displaced production workers often require retraining or relocation to remain in the industry.
What It Signals
Inline’s quiet departure from Michigan is a small story in national numbers but a loud one locally, underscoring how targeted manufacturing investments can be both transformative and temporary.
For rural communities, the episode highlights the importance of diversifying beyond a single employer and building safety nets that anticipate future plant closures, rather than just celebrating openings.
Sources:
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity – WARN Notice: Inline Plastics Corp. Facility Closure, Gladwin, MI
Inline Plastics – Meeting the Growing Demand: Inline Plastics Expands its Footprint into Midwest
PlasticsToday – Inline Plastics to Close Michigan Manufacturing Plant in January, Eliminating 25 Jobs in Gladwin
Michigan Center for Data and Analytics – 2024 Michigan Annual Economic Analysis Report
Plastics Industry Association – The Economic Contributions of Plastics Manufacturing in the U.S.
Packaging Dive – Where is packaging industry consolidation likely in 2025?