WILTON — Jarden Plastic Solutions in East Wilton will soon be known as Newell Brands with Newell Rubbermaid Inc.’s acquisition of Jarden Corp.

The local mill is one of the town’s largest employers, with about 230 people producing white, clear and black cutlery for its sister company, Jarden Home Brands in Dryden, which distributes the product under 50 brand names. 

“It is just a name change,” Steve Veilleux, general manager of the only Jarden’s plant in Maine, said Tuesday. “It will be business as usual.” 

That’s how the company is approaching it with employees, vendors and suppliers, he said. Letters announcing the merger have been sent.

The merger was announced in December 2015. The change was expected by the end of March, but there has been too much work for the company to complete. So the change to Newell Brands is not expected until about the middle of April, he said. 

Not a lot is expected to happen in 2016, he said. The plasticware mill will continue as normal. What 2017 will bring is an unknown, perhaps even to corporate officers, he said.

The local mill employs about 230 people, up from 206 employees in 2012.

“We have not slowed down a wink,” he said. “We’ve been viable for Jarden’s and I’m sure we will be for Newell Brands.”

“Jarden’s is one of Wilton’s largest employers, offering good manufacturing jobs and wages,” Town Manager Rhonda Irish said. “I do not foresee any concerns for the town. I am hopeful there will be even more opportunities for the East Wilton Jarden’s plant, as Rubbermaid is a strong company.”

From 2006 to 2012, Jarden Plastic Solutions grew by leaps and bounds, Veilleux said in late 2012.  The mill was trying to expand with a new building, new machines and add new jobs after escaping a total demise.

Around 2002, it looked like the mill work would all go to China.

“We were on the edge of losing and completely leaving the area,” Veilleux said in 2012.

Unfortunately, the expansion plan did not materialize. Jarden Corp. decided not to break ground here, he said. They expanded a large mill in Kentucky with three fully automated lines producing cutlery. It is now up and running, he said.

“They wanted to utilize that and couldn’t justify us growing here,” he said.

A plant in the Midwest is better for the company rather than shipping from the East Coast to the West Coast, he said.

abryant@sunmediagroup.net

This story was adjusted to reflect that Jarden’s is one of the town’s largest employers not the largest.

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