When Georgia-Pacific workers in Mt. Olive, Illinois, reported for their shifts on October 30, 2025, they were met with news that will reshape the town’s economic landscape. The company formally notified employees that its corrugated box manufacturing plant will close permanently by December 31, 2025, eliminating 134 jobs and ending Georgia-Pacific’s full manufacturing operations in the state.
Company officials said the decision follows a sustained decline in customer orders and an internal assessment that found the Mt. Olive facility could no longer serve customers competitively over the long term. Leadership described the move as a market-based choice, stressing that it was not tied to employee performance but to long-running demand trends in the corrugated packaging industry.
Workforce Shock in a Small Manufacturing Community
The Mt. Olive plant employs about 134 people, most of them hourly production workers represented by the United Steelworkers union. All of those positions will be cut when operations cease at the end of December.
For a small rural community, the closure represents an immediate and concentrated employment shock. Manufacturing roles with similar wages and benefits are limited in the surrounding area, leaving workers with difficult decisions about commuting longer distances, retraining for new fields, or relocating altogether. Local leaders now face the challenge of absorbing a sizable loss of industrial employment in a short time frame.
Georgia-Pacific has said it will provide support measures to help employees through the transition. According to the company, affected workers will have access to internal job placement resources, external employment assistance, and separation benefits governed by existing labor agreements. The company has not disclosed detailed figures on severance pay, relocation opportunities, or how many workers may be able to transfer to other Georgia-Pacific locations.
Wind-Down Timeline and Legal Notice Requirements
Following the October 30 announcement, the Mt. Olive plant entered a formal 60-day wind-down period. The facility is expected to keep operating during that time to complete existing customer orders and conduct a controlled shutdown of production equipment ahead of the December 31 closure.
The schedule provides 61 days between the date of notification and the final shutdown, aligning with requirements under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. That law generally mandates at least 60 days’ notice before large-scale layoffs or plant closures, giving workers limited time to seek new employment or training opportunities.
The Mt. Olive property is owned by Georgia-Pacific, but the company has not announced whether it plans to sell, redevelop, or repurpose the site. The lack of a stated plan leaves the future of the facility uncertain and complicates efforts by local economic development officials to attract potential new employers to the location.
Strategic Shift: Exit from Illinois, Expansion Elsewhere
Once Mt. Olive shuts down, Georgia-Pacific will no longer operate full manufacturing facilities in Illinois. Only warehouse operations will remain in the state, marking a complete exit from production activities there.
The closure comes in a year of significant restructuring for Georgia-Pacific, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in the United States. The company has been reshaping its portfolio by consolidating assets, closing some plants, and investing in other