Cascades closing former Coyle Packaging plant in Peterborough

Coyle Packaging Ltd., a boxboard packaging manufacturer on The Kingsway in Peterborough, will close for good by the end of December.

The longtime family-owned manufacturer was purchased last December by Cascades, one of two main packaging manufacturers in Canada (which is based in Kingsey Falls, Que.)

Cascades announced Tuesday afternoon that two of its Ontario plants are closing (in Peterborough and in Barrie, where the plant is called Jellco Packaging Corp.).

The closures will occur by Dec. 31 and will affect a total of 65 employees, according to a press release.

The Peterborough operation has 18 employees, according to an online Cascades company profile.

The closures are happening as part of an ongoing corporate reorganization, the release states.

“We are announcing today that production from the Barrie and Peterborough plants will gradually be redeployed to our other facilities in Ontario,” Charles Malo, president and CEO of Cascades, stated in the release.

“This decision will allow us to better align our existing production capacity and to improve service for our valued customers.”

The release states that the company will try to relocate Peterborough and Barrie employees to other jobs within the company.

If that’s not possible for some, states the release, the company will assist them as they look for other work.

The Coyle Packaging Group was founded in Scarborough in

1966 and opened a plant in Peterborough in 1997.

The plant was initially on Jameson Dr. but relocated to a smaller facility on The Kingsway in 2010 when the group downsized from six plants to four.

Coyle once employed former Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal, before he was elected to the provincial Legislature in 2003.

Company founder Gordon Coyle and his wife Kay once lived in Peterborough; three of their four sons were born here.

That was prior to the founding of the company (which took place in Scarborough).

Coyle Packaging on The Kingsway makes corrugated sheets as well as items such as boxes, trays and displays.

CLIFFORD SKARSTEDT EXAMINER The former Coyle Packaging Group operation on The Kingsway, now owned by Cascades, seen Wednesday, will be closing its doors by December.