Sealed Air Corp. will move 48 jobs to a currently vacant building at 8809 Industrial Drive in Caledonia, consolidating operations from around Racine County.
Ken Aurichio, Sealed Air executive director of corporate affairs, said the positions are existing research and development positions that will remain in Racine for “the foreseeable future” and represent the “overwhelming majority” of the company’s employee base in the county.
The village plan commission approved a conditional use permit for professional offices and research and testing laboratories at the site last week and the village will take up a resolution on the item tonight.
“It’s a pretty straightforward, low-key operation,” said Tom Christensen, Caledonia village administrator.
Sealed Air acquired Diversey Care, a hygiene and cleaning solutions company based in Sturtevant, in 2011. Three years later the company announced it would move its headquarters in New Jersey and the Diversey headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Aurichio said that move is on pace to be completed this year. According to a February securities filing, the company will have relocated 1,300 jobs to Charlotte by the end of the year, including 300 jobs from Sturtevant.
Since the initial announcement, the company has announced several rounds of layoffs and also sold its former headquarters building to S.C. Johnson for $27.6 million.
Sealed Air also announced in October it would pursue the spin-off of its Diversey business and planned to let its brand license agreements with S.C. Johnson & Son expire. The spin-off is expected to be completed in the second half of 2017, but Aurichio said no decision had been made on where the new company will be based.
