The Tropicana glass bottle plant in Bradenton, Florida, US, closed at the end of Feb/03 with the loss of 220 jobs. Tropicana announced the closure in Nov/02 saying consumers increasingly prefer plastic drink containers over glass ones. "We're really quite sad that consumer preference for plastic is eliminating the need for the glass plant, because glass was such a big part of our heritage," spokeswoman Kristine Nickel said. Up to 525 employees worked at the plant, which, at its peak, had 3 operating furnaces. The bottles produced were used for Tropicana & other beverages. Although Tropicana opened a plastics plant in 1969, glass remained its preferred container material. But the beginning of the marketplace's move toward plastic prompted Tropicana to close one of the furnaces in 1991, with the loss of 42 jobs, and another furnace was shut down in 2000.
