SOLON, Ohio — The food and beverage giant Nestlé announced the layoffs of 216 employees from its Solon factory on Monday.
In a statement, Nestlé said the layoffs are meant to "continue to deliver quality products to consumers at competitive prices."
Nestlé cited their commitment to Ohio despite Monday's layoffs in the release saying their new factory set to open in Williamsburg Township will open later this year, bringing 300 new jobs to the state.
3News reached out to the city of Solon for comment on today's layoff announcement. Director of Economic Development Angee Shaker said, "We're disappointed to receive this news. Nestle is like family to us, so this is sad news."
The number of affected employees comes in stark contrast to the number of anticipated layoffs in 2024 Nestlé announced in November of 2023. Nestlé had previously announced that 77 workers were expected to be laid off between December 31, 2023 and August 2, 2024.
A spokesperson for Nestle responded with the following statement:
"To best serve our consumers now and into the future, we are optimizing our manufacturing network and shifting some production from our Solon factory to other sites within our U.S. network.
"The Solon factory will continue to be an important part of our manufacturing network and will run lines dedicated to our growing Out-of-Home business. The business will actively review opportunities to add capacity to the factory in the future as the business environment evolves.
"We are committed to doing all we can to support our people during this change, such as developing comprehensive separation packages to ease employees’ career transitions and collaborating with state and local officials to provide additional resources and support. Impacted employees will also be able to apply for open roles at other Nestlé manufacturing facilities, including those in Ohio.
"Nestlé remains committed to Ohio with more 3,000 employees across 9 facilities including: Nestlé USA’s corporate campus and factory, a Nestle Professional factory, two Purina factories, a Nespresso boutique, a sales office, quality assurance lab and R&D center."