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Clorox Canada marks 50 years of production in Orangeville

September 22, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

You probably don’t give a lot of thought to where the handy plastic bags you use for a variety of reasons are manufactured. Most likely you buy them because you need them and find them at a grocery store, dry goods store, or the hardware store.

Many of those bags you purchase are produced right here in Orangeville – and they make a lot of them.

The Clorox Canada GLAD Plant, located on John St. in Orangeville, celebrated its 50th anniversary of production in town.

Employees, family, and many former and retired employees returned to the event. Many came just to reconnect with fellow associates.

The facility, which began operation in Orangeville in 1967, passed through several hands before being purchased and operated by Clorox, which produces many well-known brands, with the GLAD brand being produced here in Orangeville.

“We manufacture GLAD garbage bags and cling wrap,” explained Plant Manager Peter Reynolds. “We’ve been manufacturing here for 50 years. At the plant we extrude film, polyethylene, we make film in our extrusion tower, and then in the converting department we convert the film into bags, put them in packaging and ship them out. There’s a lot more to it than people think. We currently have between 100 and 110 employees.”

The plant is a high-production facility with one of the two machines producing 50,000 bags per hour. With both lines running, 1.15 million are produced in a single day.

“We have our VIP visitors, retirees, employees and their families at today’s celebration,” Mr. Reynolds said.

A tour through the plant discloses a high-tech level of production including a robot that efficiently stacks boxes on a pallet and wraps them for shipping.

Clorox is noted for being a stable and long-time employer in Orangeville.

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