Ten days after a U.S. manufacturing company with a Gilroy
location was purchased for $4.3 billion, employees remain in the
dark over what’s next.
GILROY – Ten days after a U.S. manufacturing company with a Gilroy location was purchased for $4.3 billion, employees remain in the dark over what’s next.
Temple-Inland, which employs 180 people at its box plant on Jamieson Way in Gilroy and is the eighth largest employer in town, was bought out Sept. 6 by International Paper, the largest pulp and paper company in the world, according to Forbes.
It’s not certain whether new ownership for the Austin, Texas, based company will bring new changes to the Garlic Capital, said Steve Mindt, general manager for Temple-Inland’s Gilroy site.
“At this point, I am unable to say, but I expect not,” Mindt said. “There will be more information as everything goes forward.”
He added, “I would hope that nothing happens yet.”
Officials at the Gilroy site have had no contact with International Paper since the announced merger, which still has to be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice before it’s official, Mindt said.
“It’s business as usual until, at some point, it gets through the legal challenges,” he said.
If the deal is approved, it likely won’t happen until later this year, Mindt said. Once the merger is set in stone, Mindt said Temple-Inland will close and reopen as International Paper in the first quarter of next year.
Temple-Inland is currently the eighth largest employer in Gilroy, according to data provided by the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation.
The company produces packaging materials – which as boxes used to ship produce and linerboard used in contraction – at 70 facilities in 20 states and Puerto Rico, according to its web site.
Temple-Inland’s board of directors rejected an offer from International Paper to buy out the company in July, according to a Temple Inland press release.
International Paper agrees to take on Temple-Inland’s assumed $600 million debt as part of the proposed deal. Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., International Paper employs almost 60,000 people in 24 countries, according to a press release.
