PolyOne Announces Changes Within Elastomers and Performance Additives Business

03-Sep-2001

CLEVELAND, Aug 31, 2001 PolyOne Corporation announced a series of actions within its elastomers and Performance additives operations. These steps are being taken to better align the business unit's manufacturing assets to meet current customer needs and to better position the business for growing opportunities in new markets.

* The Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada, plant will close and manufacturing will be shifted to other elastomer facilities in Ohio and Wisconsin where sufficient capacity exists. Due to slowing demand, principally in the automotive market, Tillsonburg is now operating with only one mixing line and 47 employees. PolyOne will begin a planned transition of all customers, with a targeted closing of December 2001.

* A small, non-strategic silicone compounding business in Dyersburg, Tennessee, will be sold and the plant will be closed, effective with the sale. This operation, which is separate from PolyOne's other elastomer and plastic compounding facilities in Dyersburg, had sales of $2 million in 2000. The shutdown will affect approximately nine people.

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* Forced to vacate its Chicago plant because of an eminent domain action by the city, PolyOne has decided to relocate its specialized roll compounding business to its state-of-the-art production center in DeForest, Wisconsin, which was built in 1996. The 24 employees at the leased facility in Chicago will be offered the opportunity to relocate to DeForest. The Company expects to complete this transition by June 2002.

* As part of the company's plan to integrate the Performance Additives unit with its Specialty Resins and Formulators unit, PolyOne will eliminate 30 administrative positions in Performance Additives by the end of second-quarter 2002.

All these moves stem from PolyOne's ongoing review of Elastomers and Performance Additives, which also resulted in a June announcement that the Company will close its Kingstree, South Carolina, elastomer compounding plant by the end of third-quarter 2001. "In elastomers, we are dealing with weak business conditions and excess capacity," said Thomas A. Waltermire, PolyOne chairman and chief executive officer. "This restructuring of our manufacturing base will eliminate unneeded capacity and allow us to increase our customer responsiveness, improve our financial performance and better position PolyOne to compete in today's global market.

"Unfortunately, our actions will affect PolyOne people," Waltermire said. "We are committed to treating employees fairly and to transitioning our customers without disruption to other PolyOne sites with excellent records of customer satisfaction."

Employees affected by the closings will be eligible for severance benefits and outplacement services. The closings will be included as part of PolyOne's acquisition purchase accounting. The purchase accounting accrual for cash employee separation and plant closing costs totals $4.1 million. When completed, the elastomer restructuring will yield projected annualized pre-tax savings of approximately $2.5 million.

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