CINCINNATI — Even more employees of the St. Bernard Soap Company are set to lose their jobs less than one month after the company laid off roughly half its employees in December.
Sean Witt, vice president of the union that represented St. Bernard Soap Company's employees, said employees were told at a meeting Wednesday morning that the plant would permanently shut in at least 60 days.
Witt said the closure will impact around 120 members of the union.
In October, the St. Bernard Soap Company sent out a WARN letter to employees announcing the layoffs of at least 153 of the plant's employees. According to the company's website, the St. Bernard Soap Company employed "over 250 people" before those layoffs.
According to the WARN letter, those layoffs impacted 120 union-represented employees and 8 non-represented employees. The letter said the terminations would happen December 10, or within two weeks after that date.
The company announced in the letter those layoffs would be permanent, but the WARN letter dated Oct. 12 did not say anything about plans to close; Witt said in October employees were told the factory did not intend to fully shutter, because it was searching for new clients.
According to the company's website, the St. Bernard Soap Company has continuously produced bar soap on the site for over 125 years. It was first opened by Procter & Gamble in 1886 as a bar soap production site, but over the years bar soap became less popular as liquid body wash grew in popularity, the company's site says.
In light of that, P&G sold the plant in 2003, when it became St. Bernard Soap Company and instead began manufacturing multiple different brands under its roof, instead of just those owned by P&G.
Still, Sean Witt, vice president of the union, said P&G products remained a major part of the St. Bernard Soap Company's offerings — until recently. Witt said the company lost P&G as a client and with them, the company also lost roughly 90% of business it earned from four P&G brands: Oil of Olay, Safeguard, Ivory and Old Spice.
In a statement, a spokesperson for P&G said the company is "consolidating contract manufacturing partners and will continue production at a P&G-owned plant for scale and efficiency."
The spokesperson confirmed the P&G-owned plant is in Boston.
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