Village OKs permit for new tenant of old wipes plant

Empty space in the former Guy & O’Neill building in Fredonia is being used.

The Village Plan Commission recently approved a conditional use permit for KODIS LLC, doing business as SOLVR in Fredonia.

It will occupy 315,000 square feet at 200 Industrial Dr., leasing it from Diamond Wipes International.

Nobody objected at a public hearing on the conditional use permit in June, but a representative from KMC, whose plant is down the street from the building, asked questions about hours of operation and traffic.

A SOLVR company representative said about 10 to 12 vehicles will arrive and exit the facility per day and between 30 and 40 employees will work in the plant. SOLVR, he said, intends to operate the facility on behalf of a number of clients.

The permit allows for operating hours of 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and limits delivery trucks to 25 per day.

SOLVR creates optimized solutions for warehouse logistics, and it does logistic analytics.

SOLVR is a specialized subsidiary and corporate affiliate within the KODIS Holdings network of logistics providers.

The company is based in Cleveland.

Materials to be stored on site are highly engineered, highly valued heavy industrial equipment for specialized construction projects, including data centers, according to the company.

Guy & O’Neill closed its business in early 2025 after operating for almost half a century in Fredonia. Nearly 200 employees were laid off.

The company had been working since January 2024 to facilitate a sale. Diamond Wipes International bought the company’s assets in early 2025 for $6.6 million at auction.

Diamond Wipes vacated the manufacturing space at 200 Industrial Dr. but renovated and is using the former Guy & O’Neill buildings at 617 Tower Dr. and 280 Industrial Dr.

It is Diamond Wipes’ third plant. It already has facilities in southern California and one in Ohio.

Diamond Wipes also bought Guy & O’Neill’s plant in North Carolina but chose to close it.

Diamond Wipes, which is headquartered in Chino, Calif., is the largest wet wipes manufacturer in the western United States and among the top six makers across the board. Like Guy & O’Neill, Diamond Wipes does contract manufacturing for other brands, but also does some retail private lines.