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Voyant Beauty on Central Avenue in Cortland will close its doors by the end of the year, eliminating about 500 jobs between the company, its contract agencies and tenants.
Voyant Beauty and ALPLA will close their Cortland factories, eliminating about 500 jobs, the Cortland County Business Development Corp. announced Tuesday afternoon.
“This is very difficult news, obviously, but we’re going to work hard to find other opportunities for those people here in the Cortland area,” said BDC Executive Director Garry VanGorder. “The good news is that there are plenty of openings across the local economy. Our companies are desperate for workers.”
Voyant representative Carl Melville said Tuesday the Cortland facility will close by the end of the year. ALPLA did not return calls seeking comment.
Voyant, with facilities at 121 Central Ave. and 11-35 Huntington St. in the city of Cortland, and ALPLA, which supplies plastic bottles for the Voyant product line out of the Central Avenue building it shares with Voyant, announced their decision to employees Tuesday.
Voyant has 309 direct employees and another 150 who work through staffing agencies, according to VanGorder. Nearly 35 people work at ALPLA.
The BDC will work with other employers, the Cortland Career Center,
Empire State Development, the state Department of Labor and others to identify job opportunities for the displaced workers. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer has also reached out to offer his support.
Voyant’s decision was based on changing market conditions, such as declining sales during the pandemic and conversion by motels to soap and shampoo dispensers in place of the sample size products made at the Cortland factories, Melville said.
The coronavirus pandemic and the mandatory shutdowns in 2020 undercut the beauty and personal-care products market, reports IMARC Group, a market research company. Travel fell off, as any number of hotel operators can confirm, and with it, the need for the toiletries normally supplied to them.
After that, supply chain disruptions reduced the flow of raw materials and components to end packagers, IMARC reported just last week. However, the market regained its footing as restrictions on travel and gatherings eased, fueling growth.
IMARC predicts the industry will see a 6.5% annual growth between 2022 and 2027.
Shannon Phillips, employment and training director for the Cortland Works Career Center, said Tuesday she had not yet heard about the factory closings. The career center would work with the Labor Department to help employees find new jobs.
“In general, if a factory closes in Cortland County or wherever else in the state, the Department of Labor does a rapid response,” Phillips said.
“We are now working to relocate everyone within the Voyant network or to find new opportunities in the Cortland community,” Melville said. “We will be active in that. We will do everything we can do to facilitate a smooth transition for everyone.”
Growth at other Voyant factories means Cortland employees can opt to apply for jobs elsewhere with the company and will be given priority in hiring, he said.
Voyant has 4,000 employees working in 15 factories in the United States, Canada and Europe.
“They are a big company, so they are always hiring,” Melville said. “They always prefer to hire form within whenever they can.”
ALPLA’s move to close hinged on the Voyant decision, VanGorder said.
The Australia-based ALPLA announced in March 2007 its plans to move into the former Rubbermaid factory with Voyant’s predecessor, Marietta Corp.
The Voyant plant at 11-35 Huntington St. has 46,000 square feet of light manufacturing space and 50,000 square feet of warehousing, and the former Rubbermaid factory at 121 Central Ave. has 161,866 square feet of space zoned for light manufacturing on 5.2 acres.
Part of the challenge now will be to find new operations for those facilities, VanGorder said.
“We’ve been here before (Rubbermaid closing) but we do get frequent requests for large building sites by manufacturers,” VanGorder said in an email. “These are quality buildings with municipal services, so we are hopeful there.”
The buildings have a full market value of more than $6.5 million.
Jeremy Boyer can be reached at (315) 282-2231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @CitizenBoyer
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Jeremy Boyer is the executive editor of The Citizen. He started at The Citizen as news editor in 2004, and was promoted his current position in 2006.
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Voyant Beauty on Central Avenue in Cortland will close its doors by the end of the year, eliminating about 500 jobs between the company, its contract agencies and tenants.
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