Operations Manager

Anchor Glass Container Corporation is permanently closing its Warner Robins, Georgia facility, affecting all 168 employees. The company issued a WARN notice on Tuesday, with separations beginning 17th October and continuing through 30th January. The plant, located at 1044 Booth Road in Warner Robins, is the company's only Georgia facility. Management cited "changing business needs" as the reason for closure but provided no further comment. The closure follows Anchor Glass's Jacksonville facility shutdown last year. In October, the company underwent restructuring with new majority owners, a new chairman, and reportedly reduced 60% of its debt. It also appointed a new president and chief executive officer six months ago.

Layoffs at Middle Georgia glass factory add to state's steady beat of job loss. August 20, 2026 2:08 PM Primary content. The back of the Anchor Glass factory in Warner Robins is seen Aug. 20, 2026, a few days after the company shut the factory down. Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News Layoffs this week at a Middle Georgia glass manufacturer and an Augusta area factory making parts for the automotive industry are the latest in what is turning into two straight years of record layoffs in the state. The Anchor Glass factory in the city of Warner Robins in Houston County had 168 workers before the company closed the factory this week. Anchor makes a variety of food and beverage packaging. In Warrenton, west of Augusta, Asama Coldwater Manufacturing is letting go of all 102 of its workers. ACM describes the Warrenton plant as a "a state-of-the-art machining and paint facility." Together, those job losses pushed the pace of Georgia layoffs to about 1,218 per month in 2026. That is just slightly less than the 1,287 jobs lost on average every month in 2025, the worst year for big layoffs in Georgia in a decade outside of the COVID pandemic. Those numbers come from state records kept in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Derek Collins was an Anchor employee and is the acting president of the local chapter of the United Steel Workers Union. He was among the first to receive the news of the layoffs but was then asked to sit on the news for 20 minutes before factory leadership could share the news with the whole factory. "That's the longest 20-something minutes that I can remember in my life," Collins said. "It felt a lot longer than just 20 minutes. It was just surreal." Collins said he had spent decades at Anchor. In that time, he raised three adult sons. He is still raising two younger daughters. "It's a great-paying job, union job, great healthcare," Collins said. "I couldn't find a job around here to pay me as much as I was making an Anchor." The job of helping Collins and his former co-workers find a new job falls to the Houston County Development Authority, where Paul Allen is the Business Development & Program Manager. Allen said the authority knows of about 75 manufacturing jobs in the Warner Robins area. He said in the meantime, the authority is steering people to federally supported job training programs. "Because we really feel for them; we understand that that's something that just happened," Allen said. "They weren't anticipating this. So, our mindset is that if they can't get immediately rehired somewhere else, that training and getting unemployment [benefits] would be the next best step." Meanwhile, Collins said his phone is ringing off the hook as his former co-workers call him looking for advice about what to do next. "And I'm trying to find answers because I've never been through this either, right?" Collins said. He tells people to be thankful, though, for the 90 days of severance (which is 30 days over the federal minimum) and extended employer provided healthcare while they sort things out. Those perks, he said, only exist because of their union contract. Grant Blankenship is an editor and reporter for GPB based in Macon. In the spirit of the old photojournalism dictum "f8 and be there," he believes the best stories start with field trips. Bottom content. Support quality journalism. GPB is committed to bringing you comprehensive news coverage from Georgia, across the country and around the world. Your support makes this possible. Please consider making a gift today to support this vital public service.