01.01.03
Location: Nashville, TN
Sales: $850 million
Description: BBA Fiberweb–Americas
Old Hickory, TN
Telephone: 615-847-7000
Web: www.bbafiberweb.com
Plants
Bethune, SC; Green Bay, WI; Gray Court, SC; Griswoldville, MA; Queretaro, Mexico; Old Hickory, TN; Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil; Simpsonville, SC; Toronto, OT, Canada; Washougal, WA
Processes
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonding, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
BBA Fiberweb - Asia-Pacific
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Telephone: 852-2620-5677
Web: www.bbafiberweb.com
Plants
Tianjin, China; Rayong, Thailand
Processes
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonding, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
BBA Fiberweb—Europe
Trezzano Rosa, Italy
Telephone: 39-02090-999-1
Web: www.bbamtg.com
Plants
Biesheim, France; Aschersleben, Germany; Berlin, Germany; Trezzano Rosa, Italy; Pontypool, U.K.; Norrköping, Sweden; Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia (JV); Port Elizabeth, South Africa (JV)
Process
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonded, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
BBA Materials Group—Sorbent Division
Peregallo di Lesmo, Italy
Telephone: 39-039-62847-1
Web: www.bbafiberweb.com
Plants
Peregallo di Lesmo, Italy; Charlotte, NC; Simpsonville, SC; Tianjin, China
Processes
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonding, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
A new organizational structure, a name change and a continued focus on expansion and acquisition has BBA Fiberweb, Nashville, TN, well poised for future growth in the nonwovens industry. Already, the company, formerly known as BBA Materials Technology Division, was able to significantly grow its nonwovens sales from $750 million in 2001 to $850 million last year. The company has also been helped by its diverse asset base, strong technology and a high quality workforce, according to CEO Ross McMillan.
“Our objective of profitable growth demands that our manufacturing assets deliver low cost, high efficiency and quality that meets or exceeds our customers’ expectations. We must continually offer our customers new products and ideas to help them grow their businesses through a customer-focused and market-driven organization throughout all our worldwide operations,” Mr. McMillan explained.
To accomplish these goals, in early 2003, the company was reorganized into strategic regional and global markets. Under this reorganization Bob Britton was appointed president of the Americas division; Gianluigi Fornoni was called to lead the European division and Robert Rufli was named president of the Asia-Pacific division.
In addition to regional divisions, BBA Fiberweb broke out its absorbent products business into its own division. Named Sorbent Materials Division and headed by Herbert Gerlach, this designation is intended to provide global leadership and focus to this market. “Diaper and fem care are the markets that come to mind when absorbent materials are discussed, but sorbent technology is much broader,” Mr. Gerlach explained. “This technology represents an area of growth that spans a diverse number markets and applications from food packaging and liquid management to odor control and waste management.”
The Sorbent division includes markets supplied by Korma assets in North America and Europe, the China airlaid operations and AQF in North America.
Other organizational changes made through the new business structure include the appointment of Ed Thomas as vice president, responsible for research and development on a global level. BBA Fiberweb has provided an additional boost to its research and development program by creating Centers of Excellence as well as a global research center in Peine, Germany to identify new polymers, processes and web structures to support the division’s broader hygiene and industrial product strategy.
Likewise, human resources, information and technology and finance functions were centralized and will be globally managed by Phil Storey, who leads the finance and IT areas, and Bill Rusak, who manages human resources.
“These changes enable the company to become more intensely focused and thus more efficient,” Mr. Fornoni explained. “Going forward, we will be structured in a way that will allow us to meet the needs of our customers more effectively.”
The company has taken this new structure a step further by merging the names of its various nonwovens businesses into one umbrella name, BBA Fiberweb. This name and its logo more accurately describes the nonwoven products the company makes and what it supplies to its customers, according to executives. “We supply a dynamic and diverse ‘web’ of engineered fabrics that provide solutions to customers’ needs based on synthetic and natural fibers,” Mr. McMillian explained. “This name change will unite the many operations of the division under a single global identity and philosophy with the aim of helping our customers, employees and competitors recognize our worldwide strength and scope.”
An important part of parent company London, U.K.-based BBA Group, BBA Fiberweb currently contributes about 40% of the company’s sales. This percentage has increased in recent years as the division has restructured and implemented a number of productivity improvement projects that have delivered positive results.
Expansion plans have always been at the forefront of BBA Fiberweb’s improvement strategy. Most recently, a new spunmelt line was added in Rayong, Thailand. This line, which BBA Fiberweb operates with joint venture partner CP Group under the name CNC, began production in the first quarter of 2003, three months ahead of schedule, and is expected to supply materials to the hygiene and medical markets of Southeast Asia.
In other expansion news, BBA Fiberweb is constructing a spunmelt line in Peine, Germany, and is starting up a hydroentanglement line in Bethune, SC. The Peine line was announced in late March 2003 and is expected to provide new technology and capacity for hygiene and medical markets throughout Europe. The hydroentanglement line, started in March 2003, will create wiping fabrics for hygiene applications.
“Our technology and ability to invest have helped us secure business and build relationships in markets we feel are strategically important,” Mr. Britton explained.
Among these markets is wipes, where the aforementioned hydroentanglement line, constructed in Bethune, SC, led to the establishment of a multiyear contract for the supply of baby wipes to a leading consumer care company. Company executives expect this contract to deliver revenues of $250 million over the life of the agreement.
“The wiping market is an area projected for nonwovens growth. At BBA Fiberweb, we are poised and committed to meeting these demands and grow in the market,” said David Price, vice president of North America marketing and sales. “BBA Fiberweb is supplying substrates to several ‘new-to-the-world’ consumer products. Within Europe a wiping products group has been formed with a complete line of products.”
Another area gaining speed is medical, in which BBA Fiberweb recently received a multiyear contract from one of the world’s leading producers of medical gowns and drapes. This U.S.-based healthcare group will be producing all of its gowns using Securon, a new high-barrier spunbond polypropylene material that is unique to BBA Fiberweb. Gowns made with Securon were launched in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2002 and are scheduled to launch in Europe in late 2003. Additional investments are planned to increase capacity and expand the product line to include even higher performance medical products.
BBA Fiberweb’s hygiene business has been boosted by several initiatives in the film area. In addition to the film lamination assets, currently operated through the joint venture company, Finotech (Aschersleben, Germany), BBA Fiberweb has joined forces again with Finotech to form another new company, APA, Advanced Printing Aschersleben.
APA has recently installed two state-of-the-art, in-line, four-color process machines that can print directly on a number of substrates including nonwovens and films. “The ability to supply a single purchase point for a four-color printed diaper backsheet laminate differentiates BBA Fiberweb from its competition,” explained Pieter Meijer, vice president of marketing and sales, Europe. “Supply from other companies requires a separate operation for printing.”
Executives feel that recent investments demonstrate how important hygiene is to its overall business. “Our hygiene business and customers throughout the world are extremely important to us. We have made recent investments to supply quality products to our global customers in Europe and Asia. “BBA Fiberweb’s facility in Peine, Germany was identified as our research center for hygiene development,” explained Mr. McMillan. “While the hygiene market remains an important component of our product portfolio, we are further increasing our commercial and development resources to support and grow our industrial businesses. We see these markets as offering an excellent foundation for future growth including organic and new investments and targeted acquisitions where appropriate.”
Meanwhile, in BBA Fiberweb’s industrial segment, product improvements have yielded positive results for the company. Earlier this year, BBA Fiberweb launched an improved Typar HouseWrap product to the construction market. This new product offers improved tear resistance and higher hydrostatic head than competitive products. Sales within this segment have grown more than 30% since the first quarter of 2003.
In first quarter of 2003, under its “whole house envelope” concept, BBA Fiberweb also introduced Typar RoofWrap, a roofing underlayment material that is designed to provide superior roof protection and improved performance compared with traditional felt materials.
Typar received another boost in June 2003 when The Nashville Habitat for Humanity selected BBA Fiberweb as its single source for housewrap material. The Nashville project is one of the largest Habitat for Humanity projects in the nation.
Another core area reaping the benefits of new product introductions is BBA Fiberweb’s Filtration Division. During the first quarter of 2003, the Filtration Division launched Reemay Advantage, which combines the uniformity and strength of Reemay polyester with Microban antimicrobial product protection to create truly unique pool and spa filtration media. Meanwhile, Reemay X-Treme fabric is a pleatable, multidenier polyester spunbond media offering excellent dust-holding capabilities and low pressure drop for liquid and air filtration.
Another core industrial area for BBA Fiberweb includes geotextiles, where the company is growing its marketshare through product line extensions, improved distributorship and targeted marketing campaigns.
Also padding BBA Fiberweb’s business is the acquisition of Superior Nonwovens in Gray Court, SC. Superior Nonwovens’ spunmelt business has reinforced BBA Fiberweb’s position as a leading supplier of spunbond polyester nonwovens while increasing its foothold in South Carolina, an important U.S. region for nonwovens production.
Looking toward the nonwovens industry in general, executives described it as extremely competitive, characterized by pockets of overcapacity and rising raw materials costs that present a challenge to maintaining profitable growth. In 2002 alone, polypropylene prices increased 20% and have since risen 15% in 2003. These increases are being driven by energy-related costs and high-capacity utilization of polypropylene manufacturing assets. With polypropylene demand growth at more than 4-5% and no new announced capacity slated for the medium term, cost pressures are expected to continue.
Polyester, another important raw material for BBA Fiberweb, has reported price increases of 18% to date in 2003. Other raw material costs that have risen significantly include transportation and packaging. To offset some of these increases, BBA Fiberweb has raised prices.
“Raising prices during a depressed economy is difficult, but our corporate responsibility dictates that price increases be implemented,” explained David Price, vice president of marketing and sales for North America. “Our customers expect us to maintain our leadership position with high quality products and services. Likewise, our stockholders and employees expect us to deliver acceptable levels of return and maintain financial viability.”
Committed to the future, BBA Fiberweb will continue to focus on growth, relationships and innovation. Growth is expected to come from a number of sources including existing internal business and new investments, joint ventures and acquisitions. “We have been successful in each of these endeavors in the past and expect to continue this successful track record in the future,” Mr. McMillan explained. “Our customers, suppliers, employees and stockholders are critically important to us. We will continue to build and support these relationships through excellence and innovation in all our operations and continue to improve on the level and quality and service we offer our customers.”
Sales: $850 million
Description: BBA Fiberweb–Americas
Old Hickory, TN
Telephone: 615-847-7000
Web: www.bbafiberweb.com
Plants
Bethune, SC; Green Bay, WI; Gray Court, SC; Griswoldville, MA; Queretaro, Mexico; Old Hickory, TN; Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil; Simpsonville, SC; Toronto, OT, Canada; Washougal, WA
Processes
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonding, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
BBA Fiberweb - Asia-Pacific
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Telephone: 852-2620-5677
Web: www.bbafiberweb.com
Plants
Tianjin, China; Rayong, Thailand
Processes
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonding, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
BBA Fiberweb—Europe
Trezzano Rosa, Italy
Telephone: 39-02090-999-1
Web: www.bbamtg.com
Plants
Biesheim, France; Aschersleben, Germany; Berlin, Germany; Trezzano Rosa, Italy; Pontypool, U.K.; Norrköping, Sweden; Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia (JV); Port Elizabeth, South Africa (JV)
Process
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonded, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
BBA Materials Group—Sorbent Division
Peregallo di Lesmo, Italy
Telephone: 39-039-62847-1
Web: www.bbafiberweb.com
Plants
Peregallo di Lesmo, Italy; Charlotte, NC; Simpsonville, SC; Tianjin, China
Processes
Airlaid, chemical bonded, caustic entanglement, thermal bonding, hydroentanglement, meltblown, sorbent composites, spunbond PP, PET bicomponent
Brand Names
Reemay, Korma, Starweb, AQF, Securon, Terram, Typar, Softex, Sofspan, Webril, Novonette, Biobarrier, Bidim, Linopor, UltraFlo
Major Markets
Construction and ground contact, consumer care, filtration, hygiene, medical and protective markets, industrial specialties, sorbent materials
A new organizational structure, a name change and a continued focus on expansion and acquisition has BBA Fiberweb, Nashville, TN, well poised for future growth in the nonwovens industry. Already, the company, formerly known as BBA Materials Technology Division, was able to significantly grow its nonwovens sales from $750 million in 2001 to $850 million last year. The company has also been helped by its diverse asset base, strong technology and a high quality workforce, according to CEO Ross McMillan.
“Our objective of profitable growth demands that our manufacturing assets deliver low cost, high efficiency and quality that meets or exceeds our customers’ expectations. We must continually offer our customers new products and ideas to help them grow their businesses through a customer-focused and market-driven organization throughout all our worldwide operations,” Mr. McMillan explained.
To accomplish these goals, in early 2003, the company was reorganized into strategic regional and global markets. Under this reorganization Bob Britton was appointed president of the Americas division; Gianluigi Fornoni was called to lead the European division and Robert Rufli was named president of the Asia-Pacific division.
In addition to regional divisions, BBA Fiberweb broke out its absorbent products business into its own division. Named Sorbent Materials Division and headed by Herbert Gerlach, this designation is intended to provide global leadership and focus to this market. “Diaper and fem care are the markets that come to mind when absorbent materials are discussed, but sorbent technology is much broader,” Mr. Gerlach explained. “This technology represents an area of growth that spans a diverse number markets and applications from food packaging and liquid management to odor control and waste management.”
The Sorbent division includes markets supplied by Korma assets in North America and Europe, the China airlaid operations and AQF in North America.
Other organizational changes made through the new business structure include the appointment of Ed Thomas as vice president, responsible for research and development on a global level. BBA Fiberweb has provided an additional boost to its research and development program by creating Centers of Excellence as well as a global research center in Peine, Germany to identify new polymers, processes and web structures to support the division’s broader hygiene and industrial product strategy.
Likewise, human resources, information and technology and finance functions were centralized and will be globally managed by Phil Storey, who leads the finance and IT areas, and Bill Rusak, who manages human resources.
“These changes enable the company to become more intensely focused and thus more efficient,” Mr. Fornoni explained. “Going forward, we will be structured in a way that will allow us to meet the needs of our customers more effectively.”
The company has taken this new structure a step further by merging the names of its various nonwovens businesses into one umbrella name, BBA Fiberweb. This name and its logo more accurately describes the nonwoven products the company makes and what it supplies to its customers, according to executives. “We supply a dynamic and diverse ‘web’ of engineered fabrics that provide solutions to customers’ needs based on synthetic and natural fibers,” Mr. McMillian explained. “This name change will unite the many operations of the division under a single global identity and philosophy with the aim of helping our customers, employees and competitors recognize our worldwide strength and scope.”
An important part of parent company London, U.K.-based BBA Group, BBA Fiberweb currently contributes about 40% of the company’s sales. This percentage has increased in recent years as the division has restructured and implemented a number of productivity improvement projects that have delivered positive results.
Expansion plans have always been at the forefront of BBA Fiberweb’s improvement strategy. Most recently, a new spunmelt line was added in Rayong, Thailand. This line, which BBA Fiberweb operates with joint venture partner CP Group under the name CNC, began production in the first quarter of 2003, three months ahead of schedule, and is expected to supply materials to the hygiene and medical markets of Southeast Asia.
In other expansion news, BBA Fiberweb is constructing a spunmelt line in Peine, Germany, and is starting up a hydroentanglement line in Bethune, SC. The Peine line was announced in late March 2003 and is expected to provide new technology and capacity for hygiene and medical markets throughout Europe. The hydroentanglement line, started in March 2003, will create wiping fabrics for hygiene applications.
“Our technology and ability to invest have helped us secure business and build relationships in markets we feel are strategically important,” Mr. Britton explained.
Among these markets is wipes, where the aforementioned hydroentanglement line, constructed in Bethune, SC, led to the establishment of a multiyear contract for the supply of baby wipes to a leading consumer care company. Company executives expect this contract to deliver revenues of $250 million over the life of the agreement.
“The wiping market is an area projected for nonwovens growth. At BBA Fiberweb, we are poised and committed to meeting these demands and grow in the market,” said David Price, vice president of North America marketing and sales. “BBA Fiberweb is supplying substrates to several ‘new-to-the-world’ consumer products. Within Europe a wiping products group has been formed with a complete line of products.”
Another area gaining speed is medical, in which BBA Fiberweb recently received a multiyear contract from one of the world’s leading producers of medical gowns and drapes. This U.S.-based healthcare group will be producing all of its gowns using Securon, a new high-barrier spunbond polypropylene material that is unique to BBA Fiberweb. Gowns made with Securon were launched in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of 2002 and are scheduled to launch in Europe in late 2003. Additional investments are planned to increase capacity and expand the product line to include even higher performance medical products.
BBA Fiberweb’s hygiene business has been boosted by several initiatives in the film area. In addition to the film lamination assets, currently operated through the joint venture company, Finotech (Aschersleben, Germany), BBA Fiberweb has joined forces again with Finotech to form another new company, APA, Advanced Printing Aschersleben.
APA has recently installed two state-of-the-art, in-line, four-color process machines that can print directly on a number of substrates including nonwovens and films. “The ability to supply a single purchase point for a four-color printed diaper backsheet laminate differentiates BBA Fiberweb from its competition,” explained Pieter Meijer, vice president of marketing and sales, Europe. “Supply from other companies requires a separate operation for printing.”
Executives feel that recent investments demonstrate how important hygiene is to its overall business. “Our hygiene business and customers throughout the world are extremely important to us. We have made recent investments to supply quality products to our global customers in Europe and Asia. “BBA Fiberweb’s facility in Peine, Germany was identified as our research center for hygiene development,” explained Mr. McMillan. “While the hygiene market remains an important component of our product portfolio, we are further increasing our commercial and development resources to support and grow our industrial businesses. We see these markets as offering an excellent foundation for future growth including organic and new investments and targeted acquisitions where appropriate.”
Meanwhile, in BBA Fiberweb’s industrial segment, product improvements have yielded positive results for the company. Earlier this year, BBA Fiberweb launched an improved Typar HouseWrap product to the construction market. This new product offers improved tear resistance and higher hydrostatic head than competitive products. Sales within this segment have grown more than 30% since the first quarter of 2003.
In first quarter of 2003, under its “whole house envelope” concept, BBA Fiberweb also introduced Typar RoofWrap, a roofing underlayment material that is designed to provide superior roof protection and improved performance compared with traditional felt materials.
Typar received another boost in June 2003 when The Nashville Habitat for Humanity selected BBA Fiberweb as its single source for housewrap material. The Nashville project is one of the largest Habitat for Humanity projects in the nation.
Another core area reaping the benefits of new product introductions is BBA Fiberweb’s Filtration Division. During the first quarter of 2003, the Filtration Division launched Reemay Advantage, which combines the uniformity and strength of Reemay polyester with Microban antimicrobial product protection to create truly unique pool and spa filtration media. Meanwhile, Reemay X-Treme fabric is a pleatable, multidenier polyester spunbond media offering excellent dust-holding capabilities and low pressure drop for liquid and air filtration.
Another core industrial area for BBA Fiberweb includes geotextiles, where the company is growing its marketshare through product line extensions, improved distributorship and targeted marketing campaigns.
Also padding BBA Fiberweb’s business is the acquisition of Superior Nonwovens in Gray Court, SC. Superior Nonwovens’ spunmelt business has reinforced BBA Fiberweb’s position as a leading supplier of spunbond polyester nonwovens while increasing its foothold in South Carolina, an important U.S. region for nonwovens production.
Looking toward the nonwovens industry in general, executives described it as extremely competitive, characterized by pockets of overcapacity and rising raw materials costs that present a challenge to maintaining profitable growth. In 2002 alone, polypropylene prices increased 20% and have since risen 15% in 2003. These increases are being driven by energy-related costs and high-capacity utilization of polypropylene manufacturing assets. With polypropylene demand growth at more than 4-5% and no new announced capacity slated for the medium term, cost pressures are expected to continue.
Polyester, another important raw material for BBA Fiberweb, has reported price increases of 18% to date in 2003. Other raw material costs that have risen significantly include transportation and packaging. To offset some of these increases, BBA Fiberweb has raised prices.
“Raising prices during a depressed economy is difficult, but our corporate responsibility dictates that price increases be implemented,” explained David Price, vice president of marketing and sales for North America. “Our customers expect us to maintain our leadership position with high quality products and services. Likewise, our stockholders and employees expect us to deliver acceptable levels of return and maintain financial viability.”
Committed to the future, BBA Fiberweb will continue to focus on growth, relationships and innovation. Growth is expected to come from a number of sources including existing internal business and new investments, joint ventures and acquisitions. “We have been successful in each of these endeavors in the past and expect to continue this successful track record in the future,” Mr. McMillan explained. “Our customers, suppliers, employees and stockholders are critically important to us. We will continue to build and support these relationships through excellence and innovation in all our operations and continue to improve on the level and quality and service we offer our customers.”