01.01.02
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Sales: $596 million
Description: Key Personnel
Juha Rantanen, CEO; Jukka Moisio, division president
Ahlstrom FiberComposites Division
7F, Ebisu IS Building
13-6 Ebisu 1 - Chome
Shibuya-Ku Tokyo 150 Japan
Telephone: 81-3-3442-1611
Web: www.ahlstrom.com/fibercomposites
Email: fiber.composites@ahlstrom.com
Key Personnel
Sachi Nagatsuka
Ahlstrom
FiberComposites Division
Scott House
1 Mid New Cultins
Edinburgh EH11 4DH Scotland
Telephone: 44-0-131-458-2000
Web: www.ahlstrom.com/fibercomposites
Email: fiber.composites@ahlstrom.com
Key Personnel
Karen Renton
Ahlstrom
FiberComposites Division
Two Elm Street
Windsor Locks, CT 06096-2335
Telephone: 860-654-8300
Web: www.ahlstrom.com/fibercomposites
Email: fiber.composites@ahlstrom.com
Key Personnel
Ellen Miles
Plants
Barcelona, Spain; Brignoud, France; Chirnside, U.K.; Hyun Poong, South Korea; Karhula, Finland; Louveira, Brazil; Madisonville, KY (U.S.); Mikkeli, Finland; Mount Holly Springs, PA (U.S.); Radcliffe, U.K.; Ställdalen, Sweden; Tampere, Finland; Taylorville, IL (U.S.); Turin, Italy; Warche, Belgium; Windsor Locks, CT (U.S.)
Processes
Hydroentangled, spunlaced composites, wetlaid
Brand Names
Ahlstrom, Dexter, Hydraspun
Major Markets
Automotives, composites, engine filtration, filtration specialties, food and beverage, medical, reinforcement composites, technical nonwovens, wallcoverings, wipes
Ahlstrom’s FiberComposites division, Helsinki, Finland, is one nonwovens producer that has not let the weakened economy hinder its aggressive plans for global expansion. During the past 18 months, the company has made several acquisitions as well as a large-scale capital expansion initiative to ensure its growth for the future. “Ahlstrom is continually investigating expansion or capacity increases,” explained Alistair Brown, director of marketing and communications for the company. “Capital improvements are a constant program with Ahlstrom’s roll goods manufacturing business.”
This strategy seems to have worked for Ahlstrom. Sales for the FiberComposites division increased significantly in 2001 to reach $596 million compared to $462 million in the previous year, despite the economic slowdown. While the economic situation hurt the company’s performance in 2001 to some degree, the outlook for the remainder of 2002 remains positive.
“The economic slowdown had an overall negative impact on the division’s performance during 2001,” Mr. Brown admitted. “The business environment for Ahlstrom Corporation, already deteriorating in the U.S. in late 2000, continued its downward trend in 2001, spreading to Europe and other important market areas during the year.”
A major milestone in 2001 for Ahlstrom was the completion of a new composites line at its Windsor Locks, CT facility, the culmination of a $50 million investment in December. The new 85,000 square foot building makes Windsor Locks the largest of the division’s six locations dedicated to the manufacture of nonwoven products. Using state-of-the-art technologies and processes, the new line can produce a wide range of composite nonwoven materials, which complement existing customer products in the division’s core businesses such as automotive, medical and wipes.
“This line can provide the properties and functionality of multiple layers in one composite product,” Mr. Brown added. “This investment adds value to nonwoven products and serves our existing and potential customers even better with products that bring them fiber solutions.”
With this expansion plan under its belt, Ahlstrom does not currently have any concrete expansion plans in the works, but one way the company has been expanding is through acquisitions, both in the U.S. and in Europe. After propelling itself into a position among the top 10 roll goods manufacturers in the world through its $275 million acquisition of Dexter Nonwovens in 2000, Ahlstrom more recently purchased the technology and related equipment of filtration specialist FiberMark’s Rochester, MI facility, BBA Nonwovens’ Lewisburg, PA wetlaid business activities and, most recently, Papelera del Besòs, a Capellades, Spain-based filtration media and specialty paper supplier.
“These acquisitions were consistent with Ahlstrom’s strategy of enlarging its customer and product base on a global scale,” Mr. Brown explained. “Ahlstrom’s new customers are thereby offered access to other products within Ahlstrom’s portfolio.”
But not all of Ahlstrom’s strategies center around expansion. In 2001, the company closed two of its less competitive paper machines to focus on more viable areas. Additionally the company took steps to consolidate its administrative structure, leading to cost reductions at many sites as well as the closure of its Amsterdam sales office.
Looking toward end use markets, Ahlstrom targets a wide range of applications ranging from food services and wipes to technical markets and filtration to wallcoverings and medical products, and these many end use segments showed mixed results last year. The company’s medical fabrics and automotive segments experienced weak volumes due to the soft economy. Meanwhile, the food service line achieved good volumes despite the negative impact of the BSE Disease on the meat casing industry. Additionally, the nonwoven wallcovering market experienced positive growth, which is expected to continue for the rest of 2002. This growth has been supported by the addition of a new wetlaid machine in Warche, Belgium, which came onstream in January 2001. Likewise, Ahlstrom’s technical nonwovens segment has benefited by the aforementioned purchase of the business activities related to BBA Nonwovens’ Lewisburg, PA plant in March. This purchase included all current BBA customer information, recipes, patents and production equipment related to wetlaid nonwovens production. The facility targets the apparel, filtration and technical tapes markets.
The company’s filtration specialties business was impacted strongly by the U.S. recession; however, the business showed resilience by achieving good profitability despite weak market conditions, according to Mr. Brown. Among the highlights of this business sector was Ahlstrom’s $13 million acquisition of the business activities of FiberMark’s Rochester, MI plant in September 2001. This facility produces engine filtration media and other fiber-based materials.
Ahlstrom also purchased Papelera del Besòs in April to strengthen its position as a versatile filtration media supplier for specialty filtration end uses such as laboratory and medical filtration, vacuum bag filters and engine filtration. The move also reinforced Ahlstrom’s position in Spain, where it formerly operated out of two sales offices.
With sales of E13 million last year, Papelera del Besòs was founded in 1946 and uses two specialty paper machines and two converting units to manufacture its products. The company has been renamed Ahlstrom Barcelona SA.
In addition to acquisitions, Ahlstrom has been busy upgrading its existing manufacturing facilities for its filtration business. In Taylorville, IL, the company added a solvent saturation unit to provide customers with increased flexibility and product quality, and in Hyun Poong, Korea, Ahlstrom upgraded a paper machine to expand its capacity in the filtration segment.
The company closed its Chattanooga, TN engine filtration plant in December 2001 and transferred production to its Madisonville, KY and Taylorville, IL sites. “These two sites are better suited to the production of advanced products and have both the capacity and production efficiency to handle the Chattanooga production volume,” Mr. Brown remarked. “The capacity has been successfully transferred to these two plants.”
Including the recently acquired sites, Ahlstrom now operates 10 machines and three converting units to serve the global filtration media market.
With new facilities, acquired both through acquisition and expansion, Ahlstrom’s FiberComposites division is well poised to meet the growing needs of its nonwovens customers with high-quality, value-added materials while growing its business in both developed and developing world regions. “The FiberComposites division’s main focus in 2002 has been to commercialize high performance fiber-based materials from its new production lines in Windsor Locks, CT and Warche, Belgium, while improving business operations in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America,” Mr. Brown remarked."
Sales: $596 million
Description: Key Personnel
Juha Rantanen, CEO; Jukka Moisio, division president
Ahlstrom FiberComposites Division
7F, Ebisu IS Building
13-6 Ebisu 1 - Chome
Shibuya-Ku Tokyo 150 Japan
Telephone: 81-3-3442-1611
Web: www.ahlstrom.com/fibercomposites
Email: fiber.composites@ahlstrom.com
Key Personnel
Sachi Nagatsuka
Ahlstrom
FiberComposites Division
Scott House
1 Mid New Cultins
Edinburgh EH11 4DH Scotland
Telephone: 44-0-131-458-2000
Web: www.ahlstrom.com/fibercomposites
Email: fiber.composites@ahlstrom.com
Key Personnel
Karen Renton
Ahlstrom
FiberComposites Division
Two Elm Street
Windsor Locks, CT 06096-2335
Telephone: 860-654-8300
Web: www.ahlstrom.com/fibercomposites
Email: fiber.composites@ahlstrom.com
Key Personnel
Ellen Miles
Plants
Barcelona, Spain; Brignoud, France; Chirnside, U.K.; Hyun Poong, South Korea; Karhula, Finland; Louveira, Brazil; Madisonville, KY (U.S.); Mikkeli, Finland; Mount Holly Springs, PA (U.S.); Radcliffe, U.K.; Ställdalen, Sweden; Tampere, Finland; Taylorville, IL (U.S.); Turin, Italy; Warche, Belgium; Windsor Locks, CT (U.S.)
Processes
Hydroentangled, spunlaced composites, wetlaid
Brand Names
Ahlstrom, Dexter, Hydraspun
Major Markets
Automotives, composites, engine filtration, filtration specialties, food and beverage, medical, reinforcement composites, technical nonwovens, wallcoverings, wipes
Ahlstrom’s FiberComposites division, Helsinki, Finland, is one nonwovens producer that has not let the weakened economy hinder its aggressive plans for global expansion. During the past 18 months, the company has made several acquisitions as well as a large-scale capital expansion initiative to ensure its growth for the future. “Ahlstrom is continually investigating expansion or capacity increases,” explained Alistair Brown, director of marketing and communications for the company. “Capital improvements are a constant program with Ahlstrom’s roll goods manufacturing business.”
This strategy seems to have worked for Ahlstrom. Sales for the FiberComposites division increased significantly in 2001 to reach $596 million compared to $462 million in the previous year, despite the economic slowdown. While the economic situation hurt the company’s performance in 2001 to some degree, the outlook for the remainder of 2002 remains positive.
“The economic slowdown had an overall negative impact on the division’s performance during 2001,” Mr. Brown admitted. “The business environment for Ahlstrom Corporation, already deteriorating in the U.S. in late 2000, continued its downward trend in 2001, spreading to Europe and other important market areas during the year.”
A major milestone in 2001 for Ahlstrom was the completion of a new composites line at its Windsor Locks, CT facility, the culmination of a $50 million investment in December. The new 85,000 square foot building makes Windsor Locks the largest of the division’s six locations dedicated to the manufacture of nonwoven products. Using state-of-the-art technologies and processes, the new line can produce a wide range of composite nonwoven materials, which complement existing customer products in the division’s core businesses such as automotive, medical and wipes.
“This line can provide the properties and functionality of multiple layers in one composite product,” Mr. Brown added. “This investment adds value to nonwoven products and serves our existing and potential customers even better with products that bring them fiber solutions.”
With this expansion plan under its belt, Ahlstrom does not currently have any concrete expansion plans in the works, but one way the company has been expanding is through acquisitions, both in the U.S. and in Europe. After propelling itself into a position among the top 10 roll goods manufacturers in the world through its $275 million acquisition of Dexter Nonwovens in 2000, Ahlstrom more recently purchased the technology and related equipment of filtration specialist FiberMark’s Rochester, MI facility, BBA Nonwovens’ Lewisburg, PA wetlaid business activities and, most recently, Papelera del Besòs, a Capellades, Spain-based filtration media and specialty paper supplier.
“These acquisitions were consistent with Ahlstrom’s strategy of enlarging its customer and product base on a global scale,” Mr. Brown explained. “Ahlstrom’s new customers are thereby offered access to other products within Ahlstrom’s portfolio.”
But not all of Ahlstrom’s strategies center around expansion. In 2001, the company closed two of its less competitive paper machines to focus on more viable areas. Additionally the company took steps to consolidate its administrative structure, leading to cost reductions at many sites as well as the closure of its Amsterdam sales office.
Looking toward end use markets, Ahlstrom targets a wide range of applications ranging from food services and wipes to technical markets and filtration to wallcoverings and medical products, and these many end use segments showed mixed results last year. The company’s medical fabrics and automotive segments experienced weak volumes due to the soft economy. Meanwhile, the food service line achieved good volumes despite the negative impact of the BSE Disease on the meat casing industry. Additionally, the nonwoven wallcovering market experienced positive growth, which is expected to continue for the rest of 2002. This growth has been supported by the addition of a new wetlaid machine in Warche, Belgium, which came onstream in January 2001. Likewise, Ahlstrom’s technical nonwovens segment has benefited by the aforementioned purchase of the business activities related to BBA Nonwovens’ Lewisburg, PA plant in March. This purchase included all current BBA customer information, recipes, patents and production equipment related to wetlaid nonwovens production. The facility targets the apparel, filtration and technical tapes markets.
The company’s filtration specialties business was impacted strongly by the U.S. recession; however, the business showed resilience by achieving good profitability despite weak market conditions, according to Mr. Brown. Among the highlights of this business sector was Ahlstrom’s $13 million acquisition of the business activities of FiberMark’s Rochester, MI plant in September 2001. This facility produces engine filtration media and other fiber-based materials.
Ahlstrom also purchased Papelera del Besòs in April to strengthen its position as a versatile filtration media supplier for specialty filtration end uses such as laboratory and medical filtration, vacuum bag filters and engine filtration. The move also reinforced Ahlstrom’s position in Spain, where it formerly operated out of two sales offices.
With sales of E13 million last year, Papelera del Besòs was founded in 1946 and uses two specialty paper machines and two converting units to manufacture its products. The company has been renamed Ahlstrom Barcelona SA.
In addition to acquisitions, Ahlstrom has been busy upgrading its existing manufacturing facilities for its filtration business. In Taylorville, IL, the company added a solvent saturation unit to provide customers with increased flexibility and product quality, and in Hyun Poong, Korea, Ahlstrom upgraded a paper machine to expand its capacity in the filtration segment.
The company closed its Chattanooga, TN engine filtration plant in December 2001 and transferred production to its Madisonville, KY and Taylorville, IL sites. “These two sites are better suited to the production of advanced products and have both the capacity and production efficiency to handle the Chattanooga production volume,” Mr. Brown remarked. “The capacity has been successfully transferred to these two plants.”
Including the recently acquired sites, Ahlstrom now operates 10 machines and three converting units to serve the global filtration media market.
With new facilities, acquired both through acquisition and expansion, Ahlstrom’s FiberComposites division is well poised to meet the growing needs of its nonwovens customers with high-quality, value-added materials while growing its business in both developed and developing world regions. “The FiberComposites division’s main focus in 2002 has been to commercialize high performance fiber-based materials from its new production lines in Windsor Locks, CT and Warche, Belgium, while improving business operations in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America,” Mr. Brown remarked."