Swiss Krono USA will lay off 130 people at its plant in Barnwell, South Carolina, as the company prepares major adjustments in its U.S. operations.<\/p>\n
According to a notice filed with the state of South Carolina, the layoffs are scheduled to take place on July 11, 2026. Local broadcaster WRDW\/WAGT reported that the announcement was published on May 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Barnwell facility produces laminate flooring and fiberboard, including MDF\/HDF products. Swiss Krono has operated in Barnwell since 2005 and expanded the plant over the past decade. The facility reportedly employed more than 150 people even before that expansion.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes approximately eight months after Swiss Krono acquired a particleboard plant in Oregon, expanding its North American wood-based panels footprint.<\/p>\n
The planned job reductions suggest that Swiss Krono USA is moving to realign costs and capacity across its North American wood-based panels and flooring business at a time when parts of the market continue to face pressure from weaker demand, high costs and changing production requirements.<\/p>\n
Swiss Krono USA is part of the Swiss-based Swiss Krono Group, one of the major international producers of wood-based panels, flooring and decorative products.<\/p>\n
Separately, Swiss Krono has also abandoned its planned Orpinia OSB project in Lot-et-Garonne, France. The project, first presented in 2024, had been expected to involve around \u20ac340 million of investment, create about 130 jobs and produce between 340,000 and 600,000 m\u00b3 of OSB panels per year. The group cited weak construction markets, uncertainty around renovation support in France and the need to focus resources on restarting its Sully-sur-Loire OSB plant after a major fire in September 2025.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n