New owner may reopen Guy & O’Neill plant

The hope is that the former Guy & O’Neill manufacturing facility in Fredonia that shut down last month  — leaving nearly 200 employees unemployed — will reopen under its new owner, California-based Diamond Wipes International Inc.

Ozaukee Economic Development Director Kathleen Cady Schilling said she has been told by officials that the California-based wet wipe manufacturer is working on obtaining licenses for production in Wisconsin.

“Everyones’ hope is that they will reopen,” she said.

Cady Schilling said she hasn’t directly communicated with Diamond Wipes. The company could not be reached for comment by Ozaukee Press.

Diamond Wipes has retained a skeleton crew to keep the lights on at the Fredonia facility, Fredonia Village Administrator Christophe Jenkins said, but almost all of Guy and O’Neill’s former employees were fired last month.

A job fair will be hosted by the workforce development agency Forward Careers to help laid-off employees find new jobs, Cady Schilling said.

Several employers have signed up for the fair, she said.

Jenkins said the village has plenty of highly skilled employees ready for work if the facility reopens.

“We are hoping they will get their ducks in a row and open up in the village,” he said. “It can take time to get everything ready to go.”

He said the purchase of the facility by a manufacturer like Diamond Wipes is a good sign.

“It’s positive news. It means they aren’t completely shutting the doors,” he said.

Diamond Wipes purchased the assets of Guy & O’Neill, including its Fredonia and Reidsville, N.C., facilities,  for $6.6 million at auction last month. In December, Guy & O’Neill had entered voluntary receivership and announced plans to layoff its 196 Wisconsin employees and 102 North Carolina workers.

The announcement sent a shock wave across Fredonia.

Village President Dan Gehrke said at the time that he was “at a loss for words.”

“We had no idea this was going to happen. They’ve been here forever, supported the community. They just built on to their plant two years ago,” he said, adding that Guy & O’Neill chose its facility’s location with an eye for future expansion.

“That was really exciting ... then this happened. We’re shocked. I think the general consensus is we’re disappointed and shocked. It’s never good to lose a staple of your community.”

Guy & O’Neill was owned by private equity firm Centre Partners.