Press Glass shifts N.C. operations to Henry County

Press Glass, a fabricator of flat glass for the commercial construction industry, is shuttering its Stoneville, North Carolina, operation and moving toward fabricating and delivering all products from its operation in Ridgeway, where the company has produced glass since 2020.

Of 178 workers at the North Carolina plant, 110 are transferring to Press Glass’ Virginia facility at the Commonwealth Crossing Business Centre in Henry County, Karolina Styk, communications coordinator for Press Glass, said Friday. About seven miles and a state line sits between the two plants.

The remaining 68 workers will lose their jobs March 14, according to a letter from Press Glass to the North Carolina Department of Commerce sent under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Employees working in maintenance, production and scheduling are among those affected, the letter notes.

“We are hoping that we will be able to find them a place in Ridgeway and eventually also be hiring them,” Styk said.

Styk did not provide a timeline for when workers might be rehired. Following the layoffs, Press Glass will have about 500 employees in Virginia, she said.

“This decision aligns with our vision of streamlining operations and positioning the company for sustained success in the coming years,” Maciej Migalski, president of Press Glass North America, stated in a news release.

Founded in Konopiska Poland in 1991, Press Glass acquired Glass Dynamics, a Stoneville, North Carolina, fabricator founded in the mid-1980s, in 2017. The following year, Press Glass said it would invest $43.55 million to establish a 280,000-square-foot manufacturing operation in Henry County’s Commonwealth Crossing, becoming the first tenant in the industrial park.

In August 2023, Press Glass announced plans for a $155.2 million, 360,000-square-foot addition to its existing Ridgeway facility. Construction on the expansion began last year and remains underway. Styk did not have a projected date of completion.

“We will be adding more machines and eventually we will create more job openings in our Ridgeway facility,” Styk said.

A cutting table, edge processing line, and tempering furnace were recently installed at Ridgeway’s Press Glass operation.

Employees transferring to Ridgeway “will be working in better conditions with more modern equipment in the new facility,” Styk said.

Buildings where Press Glass has been used include the covered pedestrian walkway at Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, and Amaris, a 12-story waterfront condominium building with an all-glass façade in Washington, D.C.

Press Glass has 13 factories in Europe and about 3,000 employees globally. The company’s production exceeds 93 million square feet of glass units each year.

Pennsylvania-based aluminum beverage can manufacturer Crown Holdings also is located at Commonwealth Crossing.