A Wisconsin-based company that announced plans last week to close a Rockingham County factory that employs more than 100 workers is hoping for good news to sustain the business.
Guy & O’Neill, which manufactures wet wipes and disinfectant products for other companies and private labels, thought it had a buyer for its business as recently as November, says Kristin Voigt, the company’s human resources manager based in Fredonia, about 30 miles north of Milwaukee. That deal fell through, she says, which puts the company up against a Jan. 31 deadline.
Guy & O’Neill filed layoff notices Dec. 23 in the state of Wisconsin and North Carolina. About 200 workers would lose their jobs in Wisconsin and 102 at a Guy & O’Neill factory in Reidsville if a buyer can’t be found by the end of next month, she says. The North Carolina factory makes wet wipes and the Wisconsin factory makes disinfectant wipes and bottled bathroom and kitchen cleaning products.
“We’re all hopeful that we pull this out, but that doesn’t mean we’re not preparing for the alternative,” says Voigt.
New York-based private equity firm Centre Partners bought Guy & O’Neill in 2018, but decided in 2023 it would move on, Voigt says. In January, the company told its 300 employees it was looking for a new buyer, she says. The private company has been transparent with its employees, she adds.
Guy & O’Neill isin dis cussions with “four or five” potential investors, including some that made offers for the company previously, but were rejected in favor of the company that backed out of the deal. Voigt would not name the company that declined to go forward.
“We’re trying to do anything we can to stay open,” she says. “We’re not giving up the fight.”
Guy & O’Neill was founded in 1975 and only has operations in Wisconsin and North Carolina. The company bought the Reidsville business in March 2023 from Israel-based Albaad. In North Carolina, it operates out of a 216,000-square-foot factory that has a tax value of about $9.9 million, according to Rockingham County online property records. Guy & O’Neill does not own the North Carolina building.
Despite the company’s tenuous status, few employees in Wisconsin or North Carolina have left. The company wants other businesses to know its employees may be looking for a job and that they are good workers, she says. “We don’t want anyone to feel they’re on their own on this,” she says of its workers.
Describing Guy & O’Neill as desperate would be wrong, although its back is against the wall. “We definitely need a new buyer,” she says, “but we’re not thinking that way. We’re positive thinkers. We’re going to pull this out.”