01.01.09
Location: LONDON, U.K.
Sales: $947 Million
Description: Key Personnel
Daniel Dayan, CEO; Dan Abrams, CFO; Ian Barnes, president, Consumer Fabrics; Derek Chan, president Asia/Pacific: John Juric, president, Americas Industrial division; Paul Glover, Managing Director Terram; Hans Jörg Oberberg, president, European Industrial division
Plants
Green Bay, WI;Old Hickory, TN;Simpsonville, SC; Tianjin, China; Biesheim, France; Aschersleben, Germany; Berlin, Germany; Trezzano Rosa, Italy; Pontypool, U.K.; Norrköping, Sweden; Port Elizabeth, South Africa (JV); Peine, Germany;Terno d’Isola, Italy;
Processes
Chemical bonded, thermal bonded, meltblown, bicomponent spunbond, airlaid, air through bonded, spunbond, composites
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, baby and adult diapers, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, femcare
Reporting a decrease of 3% was Fiberweb whose 2008 sales were £512 million due largely to softness in its industrial markets. “Hygiene is a pretty defensive market,” said CEO Daniel Dayan. “There can be some lower usages or also some trade down from mid-tier brands to lowertier ones, but much of the softness we saw was in our industrial markets, particularly those that have to do with construction.”
During the same time, earnings tripled, a continuance of a turnaround begun during the second half of 2007.
A key component of this plan was the shuttering of older spunmelt lines, first in the U.S., and more recently in Europe when Fiberweb said it would shut down an older line in Norrkoping, Sweden and cut output at sites in Peine, Germany and Biesheim, France as its high speed, state-of-the-art spunmelt line at its Trezzano Rosa, Italy site was completed. These measures were expected to keep Fiberweb’s spunbond capacity in Europe broadly constant while increasing its average capacity per line by around 50% compared to first half 2008.
These moves follow the closure of two spunmelt lines in Washougal, WA as well as an SMS line, a spunbond line and a portion of a pilot line in Simpsonville, SC in mid-2007 as well as the shutdown of a Toronto line earlier that year.
“The old BBA did not invest efficiently in spunmelt but since 2006 we have worked piece by piece to reinvest,” Mr. Dayan said. These latest efforts in Europe will lessen the Fiberweb workforce by about 120 but newer, more efficient lines in Sweden and Italy will allow the company’s European spunmelt capacity to remain level.
These streamlining measures had been planned since Fiberweb gained independence from its parent company, The BBA Group, three years ago.
“We haven’t done anything directly in response to the economic crisis,” Mr. Dayan explained. “What we have done is continue the structuring efforts started in 2006. The only result is that we may have accelerated some of those efforts in response to the crisis.”
Characterizing the European market as too crowded and too fragmented, Mr. Dayan blames current conditions on overinvestment in the past. “To remain competitive, the smaller players had to invest in more modern machinery or get out of the market. Too many companies opted to invest.”
In North America, Fiberweb’s solution to fragmentation is a joint venture partnership. This summer, the company’s board approved a plan to form a joint venture with Brazilian producer Fitesa—a company with firm plans to invest in North America— about combining the two companies’ American hygiene businesses, including Fitesa’s planned North American investment, its recently heavily-invested Brazilian operation and Fiberweb’s facilities in Washougal, WA and Queretaro, Mexico.
“We see this as a clever way to enable consolidation when it’s hard to get financing,” Mr. Dayan said. “It gives us access to South America at a great cost base and investment in North America at half the price, while giving Fitesa efficient access to North America, technology and global customers.”
The new joint venture company is set to be the second largest maker of spunmelt nonwovens in the Americas. Fiberweb’s spunmelt assets outside of the Americas as well as its nonwovens technologies beyond spunmelt were not impacted by the venture.
Another technology that continues to be important to Fiberweb is airlaid. As China’s largest producer of airlaid nonwovens with two lines in Tianjin, China, Fiberweb continues to be committed to this market despite a recent decision to close a fairly new line at its Korma, Italy site. The line, which was ordered with the intent to go after some feminine hygiene business formerly supplied by older Fiberweb technology. When the customer decided to change its product to airlaid, Fiberweb opted to invest in a new line to serve it. Unfortunately, the new line was unable to achieve the economies necessary for its customers for a number of reasons.
Sales: $947 Million
Description: Key Personnel
Daniel Dayan, CEO; Dan Abrams, CFO; Ian Barnes, president, Consumer Fabrics; Derek Chan, president Asia/Pacific: John Juric, president, Americas Industrial division; Paul Glover, Managing Director Terram; Hans Jörg Oberberg, president, European Industrial division
Plants
Green Bay, WI;Old Hickory, TN;Simpsonville, SC; Tianjin, China; Biesheim, France; Aschersleben, Germany; Berlin, Germany; Trezzano Rosa, Italy; Pontypool, U.K.; Norrköping, Sweden; Port Elizabeth, South Africa (JV); Peine, Germany;Terno d’Isola, Italy;
Processes
Chemical bonded, thermal bonded, meltblown, bicomponent spunbond, airlaid, air through bonded, spunbond, composites
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, baby and adult diapers, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, femcare
Reporting a decrease of 3% was Fiberweb whose 2008 sales were £512 million due largely to softness in its industrial markets. “Hygiene is a pretty defensive market,” said CEO Daniel Dayan. “There can be some lower usages or also some trade down from mid-tier brands to lowertier ones, but much of the softness we saw was in our industrial markets, particularly those that have to do with construction.”
During the same time, earnings tripled, a continuance of a turnaround begun during the second half of 2007.
A key component of this plan was the shuttering of older spunmelt lines, first in the U.S., and more recently in Europe when Fiberweb said it would shut down an older line in Norrkoping, Sweden and cut output at sites in Peine, Germany and Biesheim, France as its high speed, state-of-the-art spunmelt line at its Trezzano Rosa, Italy site was completed. These measures were expected to keep Fiberweb’s spunbond capacity in Europe broadly constant while increasing its average capacity per line by around 50% compared to first half 2008.
These moves follow the closure of two spunmelt lines in Washougal, WA as well as an SMS line, a spunbond line and a portion of a pilot line in Simpsonville, SC in mid-2007 as well as the shutdown of a Toronto line earlier that year.
“The old BBA did not invest efficiently in spunmelt but since 2006 we have worked piece by piece to reinvest,” Mr. Dayan said. These latest efforts in Europe will lessen the Fiberweb workforce by about 120 but newer, more efficient lines in Sweden and Italy will allow the company’s European spunmelt capacity to remain level.
These streamlining measures had been planned since Fiberweb gained independence from its parent company, The BBA Group, three years ago.
“We haven’t done anything directly in response to the economic crisis,” Mr. Dayan explained. “What we have done is continue the structuring efforts started in 2006. The only result is that we may have accelerated some of those efforts in response to the crisis.”
Characterizing the European market as too crowded and too fragmented, Mr. Dayan blames current conditions on overinvestment in the past. “To remain competitive, the smaller players had to invest in more modern machinery or get out of the market. Too many companies opted to invest.”
In North America, Fiberweb’s solution to fragmentation is a joint venture partnership. This summer, the company’s board approved a plan to form a joint venture with Brazilian producer Fitesa—a company with firm plans to invest in North America— about combining the two companies’ American hygiene businesses, including Fitesa’s planned North American investment, its recently heavily-invested Brazilian operation and Fiberweb’s facilities in Washougal, WA and Queretaro, Mexico.
“We see this as a clever way to enable consolidation when it’s hard to get financing,” Mr. Dayan said. “It gives us access to South America at a great cost base and investment in North America at half the price, while giving Fitesa efficient access to North America, technology and global customers.”
The new joint venture company is set to be the second largest maker of spunmelt nonwovens in the Americas. Fiberweb’s spunmelt assets outside of the Americas as well as its nonwovens technologies beyond spunmelt were not impacted by the venture.
Another technology that continues to be important to Fiberweb is airlaid. As China’s largest producer of airlaid nonwovens with two lines in Tianjin, China, Fiberweb continues to be committed to this market despite a recent decision to close a fairly new line at its Korma, Italy site. The line, which was ordered with the intent to go after some feminine hygiene business formerly supplied by older Fiberweb technology. When the customer decided to change its product to airlaid, Fiberweb opted to invest in a new line to serve it. Unfortunately, the new line was unable to achieve the economies necessary for its customers for a number of reasons.