Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Procter & Gamble announced on Wednesday that it will close its factory in Kansas City, Kan. and cut hundreds of jobs at its Iowa City facility.
Nearly 800 people will lose jobs in the two cities, including 280 in Kansas City and approximately 500 in Iowa City.
About 200 of the Kansas City jobs will be relocated to West Virginia, while workers in Cincinnati will take on additional duties created by the Iowa job cuts.
"Decisions like this are never easy, but we are communicating this decision more than two years in advance to help our employees plan for the future," the company said in a news release. "We are committed to supporting P&G people through the transition in a manner consistent with our values and principles."
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The moves are expected to be finalized by 2020. Procter & Gamble officials said it will negotiate with labor unions to help employees find other roles in the company or elsewhere.
"It gives us time to figure out where we're going to go and where we're going to move from here and plan," said John Luschen, a Procter & Gamble employee of 18 years, told WDAF-TV. "It's a lot better than coming to a closed door."
Kansas City Mayor David Alvey expressed disappointment in Procter & Gamble's decision to leave town.
"We do have some real positive that we can take out of this," Alvey said, according to KCTV. "First of all that it's a great facility. It could be re-purposed. There's a demand for manufacturing it's a great location at 18th and Kansas Avenue, with easy access to I-35, I 70, I-29, obviously 435 - all those different places."
Procter & Gamble has closed 12 of its facilities in the United States since 2013 as part of an ongoing restructuring process.
