Jacksonville plant that’s made millions of bottles for Anheuser-Busch will close (Courtesy of the Florida Times-Union) — The Anchor Glass Container Corp. manufacturing plant on Huron Street is heading toward closure, ending a century-long run of glass bottle-making at the location under different company names.
The shuttering of the only remaining glass bottle manufacturing plant in Florida will affect employment of 144 people at the plant located at 2121 Huron St. in Northwest Jacksonville.
“Huge tragedy,” former state Sen. Audrey Gibson posted on X about the announcement.
The plant’s customers have included the Anheuser-Busch plant on the Northside for millions of bottles. The Anchor Glass operation in Jacksonville is one of six bottle-making plants operated nationwide by the company and has been a source of jobs for generations in a part of the city that has high rates of unemployment and poverty.
“Changing business needs require us to close this facility,” Anchor Glass wrote Monday in a letter to Mayor Donna Deegan and City Council President Randy White.
The company sent the letter to city leaders as part of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification program, known as WARN for short. The letter says the official closure of the plant will occur in February.
Anchor Glass Container, headquartered in Tampa, has plants in Georgia, Oklahoma, Indiana, New York and Minnesota.
First Coast Manufacturers Association President Lake Ray said the Anchor Glass plant in Jacksonville supplied glass bottles for a number of businesses over the years but the use of plastic and metal for containers squeezed the demand for glass bottles. He said plants that make glass bottles have been adding advanced manufacturing equipment to increase productivity.
“It’s disappointing,” he said. of the Jacksonville plant’s closure. “I certainly hate to see it but it’s just representative of where technology and where the change in materials are taking us.”
Gibson said it’s a blow to the neighborhoods near the plant. She said her grandfather was among the many residents who worked at it.
“It’s been an anchor in our community,” she said.
She said in addition to the loss of the jobs and paychecks, “a deserted place in that community” adds to the stress of neighborhoods already struggling.