01.01.03
Location: Memphis, TN
Sales: $225 billion
Description: Key Personnel
Kris Matula, senior vice president, nonwovens and corporate strategy; Chip Aiken, senior vice president, manufacturing—nonwovens; Susan Crenshaw, vice president nonwovens and absorbent fiber product development; Marko Rajamma, vice president, nonwovens sales—Europe and the Middle East; Hank Hall, manager, nonwoven sales—Americas and Far East
Plants
Delta, British Columbia, Canada; Cork, Ireland; Steinfurt, Germany; Gaston, NC
Processes
Latex bonded, thermal bonded and multibonded airlaid
Brand Names
Vicell, Vizorb, Unicore, Duocore, Walkisoft, Airspun
Major Markets
Feminine hygiene, baby diapers, adult incontinence, premoistened wipes, moist tissue, medical, tabletop, wipers, filtration, food packaging, household cleaning products
As the airlaid market continues to face a global overcapacity situation, its largest producer, Buckeye Technologies, Memphis, TN, continues to focus on market development. While current markets for airlaid are performing well, new markets need to be developed to fill the thousands of tons of capacity brought onstream in North America in the late 1990s early 2000s, according to executives.
“Our performance has improved but business conditions remain extremely difficult,” explained Kris Matula, senior vice president of nonwovens and corporate strategy for Buckeye. “We’ve seen some positive momentum in the past several months but I would say it’s just starting to turn around.”
While the airlaid market still faces significant overcapacity issues around the world, this problem has subsided to some degree in the past year. Particularly Europe, where Buckeye operates plants in Cork, Ireland and Steinfurt, Germany, is seeing a more balanced supply-and-demand picture than North America, where Buckeye operates in Delta, British Columbia, Canada and Gaston, NC. While no known airlaid capacity is planned for either region at this time—either by Buckeye or its competitors—new lines are planned in China, which would further outpace demand. “If these plans move forward, this will only add to the current oversupply situation and further depress already difficult business conditions in the region,” Mr. Matula explained. “Today, there is no economic basis for investing in additional airlaid capacity in China or anywhere else around the globe.”
For Buckeye’s airlaid material, key markets include absorbent cores, premoistened wipes, moistened tissue, mops and tabletop products. While these markets are seeing steady growth, executives admit that new major market applications are needed. One major market that has received a lot of speculation from the airlaid industry is disposable baby diapers, which happens to be the world’s largest market for nonwovens. The conversion by a major diaper manufacturer to a pre-formed airlaid core would easily swallow up all the excess capacity challenging the market today. Currently, this switch is about economics, not feasibility, as diaper companies weigh the investments and rewards of reconfiguring their lines to accept airlaid cores. “The product performance attributes have been proven but the economic catalyst is the missing piece of the puzzle,” added Hank Hall, manager, nonwoven sales Americas and Far East.
Buckeye was at the forefront of the companies that contributed to the overcapacity situation by making large-scale capacity expansions a few years ago when it started up a 50,000-ton-per-year airlaid line in Gaston, NC. While ramping up this line, which came onstream in July 2001, has admittedly taken longer than expected, Buckeye never expected to sell out the line in one step. “Our decision to install a large line was driven by the need to generate sufficient economies of scale to penetrate new market applications,” said Michael Brown, manager, North American nonwoven sales. “We are steadily ramping up production on the new line, and our customers are uniformly pleased with its advanced capabilities.”
The Gaston line brought Buckeye’s airlaid capacity to 135,000 tons, reaffirming its spot as the world’s largest airlaid producer. As the market leader, Buckeye spends significant resources on research and development. These efforts are split between work on improving products for existing markets and creating new markets for airlaid nonwovens. While no details were released, executives did admit that new markets for airlaid, outside of hygiene, would be forthcoming in the near future.
Another area receiving a lot of press is Buckeye’s Stac-Pac™ folding technology. Since acquiring this technology from KT Industries, Winnipeg, Canada, for a reported $25 million, this technology has been applied to all of Buckeye’s airlaid facilities. Stac-Pac is an innovative system for folding and packaging high loft nonwoven materials into compressed rectangular bales. Stac-Pac packaging allows the efficient supply of extremely narrow width materials and enables customers to feed high speed converting lines with an uninterrupted flow of materials. Stac-Pac also cuts down on shipping costs and storage space. Currently, about 25% of airlaid produced by the company is folded using Stac-Pac.
The importance of Stac-Pac to Buckeye is clearly evident in its efforts to defend the technology against patent infringement in both North America and Europe. After years of defending itself against efforts made by competitor Concert Industries and its German subsidiary, Buckeye is now in a place where this proprietary position is secure, according to executives In June, the European Patent Office rejected Concert’s opposition and reaffirmed the validity of the patent.
On the corporate front, Buckeye Technologies is under new leadership. Former CEO Robert Cannon, who led the buyout of Procter & Gamble’s pulp business that formed Buckeye Technologies, retired in June. In his place, is David Ferraro, former president and chief operating officer. Additional personnel changes included the naming of John Crowe as president and COO, the appointment of Kris Matula as senior vice president of nonwovens and corporate strategy and R. Howard Cannon as senior vice president of wood cellulose. So far, the new management team has been looking at how the company can operate its business even more effectively in the future. “Continuous improvement is a way of life for our company,” Mr. Matula concluded. “Our future direction is clear, we intend to continue to strengthen our position as the leading supplier of value-added cellulose-based specialty products.”
Sales: $225 billion
Description: Key Personnel
Kris Matula, senior vice president, nonwovens and corporate strategy; Chip Aiken, senior vice president, manufacturing—nonwovens; Susan Crenshaw, vice president nonwovens and absorbent fiber product development; Marko Rajamma, vice president, nonwovens sales—Europe and the Middle East; Hank Hall, manager, nonwoven sales—Americas and Far East
Plants
Delta, British Columbia, Canada; Cork, Ireland; Steinfurt, Germany; Gaston, NC
Processes
Latex bonded, thermal bonded and multibonded airlaid
Brand Names
Vicell, Vizorb, Unicore, Duocore, Walkisoft, Airspun
Major Markets
Feminine hygiene, baby diapers, adult incontinence, premoistened wipes, moist tissue, medical, tabletop, wipers, filtration, food packaging, household cleaning products
As the airlaid market continues to face a global overcapacity situation, its largest producer, Buckeye Technologies, Memphis, TN, continues to focus on market development. While current markets for airlaid are performing well, new markets need to be developed to fill the thousands of tons of capacity brought onstream in North America in the late 1990s early 2000s, according to executives.
“Our performance has improved but business conditions remain extremely difficult,” explained Kris Matula, senior vice president of nonwovens and corporate strategy for Buckeye. “We’ve seen some positive momentum in the past several months but I would say it’s just starting to turn around.”
While the airlaid market still faces significant overcapacity issues around the world, this problem has subsided to some degree in the past year. Particularly Europe, where Buckeye operates plants in Cork, Ireland and Steinfurt, Germany, is seeing a more balanced supply-and-demand picture than North America, where Buckeye operates in Delta, British Columbia, Canada and Gaston, NC. While no known airlaid capacity is planned for either region at this time—either by Buckeye or its competitors—new lines are planned in China, which would further outpace demand. “If these plans move forward, this will only add to the current oversupply situation and further depress already difficult business conditions in the region,” Mr. Matula explained. “Today, there is no economic basis for investing in additional airlaid capacity in China or anywhere else around the globe.”
For Buckeye’s airlaid material, key markets include absorbent cores, premoistened wipes, moistened tissue, mops and tabletop products. While these markets are seeing steady growth, executives admit that new major market applications are needed. One major market that has received a lot of speculation from the airlaid industry is disposable baby diapers, which happens to be the world’s largest market for nonwovens. The conversion by a major diaper manufacturer to a pre-formed airlaid core would easily swallow up all the excess capacity challenging the market today. Currently, this switch is about economics, not feasibility, as diaper companies weigh the investments and rewards of reconfiguring their lines to accept airlaid cores. “The product performance attributes have been proven but the economic catalyst is the missing piece of the puzzle,” added Hank Hall, manager, nonwoven sales Americas and Far East.
Buckeye was at the forefront of the companies that contributed to the overcapacity situation by making large-scale capacity expansions a few years ago when it started up a 50,000-ton-per-year airlaid line in Gaston, NC. While ramping up this line, which came onstream in July 2001, has admittedly taken longer than expected, Buckeye never expected to sell out the line in one step. “Our decision to install a large line was driven by the need to generate sufficient economies of scale to penetrate new market applications,” said Michael Brown, manager, North American nonwoven sales. “We are steadily ramping up production on the new line, and our customers are uniformly pleased with its advanced capabilities.”
The Gaston line brought Buckeye’s airlaid capacity to 135,000 tons, reaffirming its spot as the world’s largest airlaid producer. As the market leader, Buckeye spends significant resources on research and development. These efforts are split between work on improving products for existing markets and creating new markets for airlaid nonwovens. While no details were released, executives did admit that new markets for airlaid, outside of hygiene, would be forthcoming in the near future.
Another area receiving a lot of press is Buckeye’s Stac-Pac™ folding technology. Since acquiring this technology from KT Industries, Winnipeg, Canada, for a reported $25 million, this technology has been applied to all of Buckeye’s airlaid facilities. Stac-Pac is an innovative system for folding and packaging high loft nonwoven materials into compressed rectangular bales. Stac-Pac packaging allows the efficient supply of extremely narrow width materials and enables customers to feed high speed converting lines with an uninterrupted flow of materials. Stac-Pac also cuts down on shipping costs and storage space. Currently, about 25% of airlaid produced by the company is folded using Stac-Pac.
The importance of Stac-Pac to Buckeye is clearly evident in its efforts to defend the technology against patent infringement in both North America and Europe. After years of defending itself against efforts made by competitor Concert Industries and its German subsidiary, Buckeye is now in a place where this proprietary position is secure, according to executives In June, the European Patent Office rejected Concert’s opposition and reaffirmed the validity of the patent.
On the corporate front, Buckeye Technologies is under new leadership. Former CEO Robert Cannon, who led the buyout of Procter & Gamble’s pulp business that formed Buckeye Technologies, retired in June. In his place, is David Ferraro, former president and chief operating officer. Additional personnel changes included the naming of John Crowe as president and COO, the appointment of Kris Matula as senior vice president of nonwovens and corporate strategy and R. Howard Cannon as senior vice president of wood cellulose. So far, the new management team has been looking at how the company can operate its business even more effectively in the future. “Continuous improvement is a way of life for our company,” Mr. Matula concluded. “Our future direction is clear, we intend to continue to strengthen our position as the leading supplier of value-added cellulose-based specialty products.”