A Scarborough packaging plant is shutting down in the coming months, laying off 67 workers.

Sonoco Products, a South Carolina-based paper and metal packaging company, notified employees on March 13 that its RTS Packaging facility, which manufactures paperboard partitions, will close after almost 40 years.

A company spokesperson said the decision to close the facility was “driven by continued cost inflation compounded by lower sales volume in the folding carton market.”

Roger Schrum, head of investor relations and communications for Sonoco, said the plant will close “in the next few months” and will continue operating in the meantime.

“We understand the impact this closure may have, and we are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for the plant, our employees and other affected parties,” he said in an email.

Employees are eligible to apply for other Sonoco jobs “where openings may exist,” he said, noting several East Coast operations. The company’s only other Maine facility is about 100 miles north, in Pittsfield.

The Scarborough plant opened in 1987 and joined Sonoco’s portfolio in 1997.

Sonoco filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, with the Maine Department of Labor on March 13. The WARN Act is a federal law requiring employers of a certain size to give advance notice to workers facing a plant closure or mass layoff.

The layoffs at the Scarborough plant are the first to trigger a WARN notice so far this year and is the largest number of layoffs to require a notice since more than 250 people were laid off from Puritan Medical Products in Pittsfield in June 2023.

Sonoco announced this month a $70 per ton increase for all grades of uncoated recycled paperboard in the U.S. and Canada, effective April 10. A company official cited inflation, rising input costs and tightening market conditions.

Sonoco also said it will institute an 8% price increase starting April 8 for converted paperboard products, including tubes, cores, cones, partitions and protective packaging.

The company has over 28,000 employees in more than 300 locations globally.