09.08.22
Evansville, IN
www.berryglobal.com
2021 Health, Hygiene, and Specialties Sales: $3.1 billion
Key Personnel
Tom Salmon, chairman and CEO; Curt Begle, president, Health, Hygiene, and Specialties Division
HHS Division Plants
U.S. and Canada: Augusta, KY; Benson, NC; Dalton, GA; McAlester, OK; Mooresville, NC; Nashville, TN; North Bay, Canada; Old Hickory, TN; Statesville, NC; Washington, GA; Waynesboro, VA
Latin America: Atlacamulco, Mexico; Cali, Colombia; Jundiaí, Brazil; Pilar, Argentina; Pouso Allegre, Brazil; San Luis Potosí, Mexico; São José dos Pinhais, Brazil
EMEIA: Aberdare, U.K.; Aschersleben, Germany; Bailleul, France; Berlin, Germany; Biesheim, France; Cujik, Netherlands; Dombühl, Germany; Maldon, U.K.; Mundra, India; Neuville-en-Ferrain, France; Tarragona, Spain; Terno d’Isola, Italy
Asia: Nanhai, China; Suzhou, China
Processes
Spunbond, meltblown, SMS, carded, composites, through air bonded, adhesive bonded, resin bonded, thermal bonded, spunlace, airlaid, aperture film, film laminates, sonic laminates, extruded laminates, thermal laminates, APEX, SPINLACE, MELTEX, REEMAY and other proprietary fabric forming, surfacing and binding systems, nonwoven and film printing, multi-layer blown film extrusion, and cast film extrusion.
Note: in addition to these specific roll-good technologies, Berry Global also offers one of the world’s leading rigid and flexible packaging portfolios for both consumer and industrial applications.
With manufacturing centers across the globe, Berry Global continues to invest in its Health, Hygiene, and Specialties business to build on and maintain its world-class, low-cost manufacturing base with an emphasis on key growth markets and regions where it continues to see incremental opportunities to invest organically in support of its unwavering commitment to global growth.
The company has added capacity for wipes substrates in North America and Europe as well as a new spunmelt nonwovens line for hygiene and medical applications in China as it continues to integrate an ambitious meltblown nonwovens expansion plan first initiated in 2020.
“The continued positive momentum from our investments, supported by our robust and growing pipeline, along with our industry leading commitment to sustainable packaging solutions, are all key factors contributing to our ongoing growth,” says Robert Weilminster, executive vice president and general manager for U.S. & Canada Hygiene.
In 2021, volume sales in its Health, Hygiene, and Specialties segment grew about 5% thanks to increased selling prices due to the pass-through of inflation, a $42 million increase from extra shipping days in fiscal 2021, and a $41 million favorable impact from foreign currency changes, partially offset by prior year divestiture sales of $34 million.
Sales will continue to increase moving forward, in part due to the company’s ambitious expansion efforts, which include the installation of a Reicofil 5 spunmelt line in Nanhai, China. Berry announced the new line in late 2020—not long after completing work on its first Reicofil 5 line at the site—and is on track to complete it later this year. It will meet forecasted market and customer growth and will be focused on high performance applications in healthcare markets in the Southeast Asia region.
“China is a growth market for Berry across the Health, Hygiene and Filtration segments as evidenced by our continued investment in the region,” Weilminster says. “China and broader Asia are experiencing all of the same economic challenges as the rest of the world, but the size and growth rate of our target markets continues to be very attractive to Berry.”
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Berry added its latest Spinlace line in Mooresville, which was completed in January 2020. The line expands the company’s proprietary APEX imaging capability with current polypropylene based materials with the ability to be retrofitted to accommodate sustainable materials.
In addition to its Spinlace capabilities, in North Carolina, Berry’s global wipes business will benefit from the addition of a new spunlace line in Cuijk, The Netherlands, increasing the company’s capacity in the region. Berry’s Evolve spunlace line, which will be made on the new line, will become commercially available in November 2022.
“Our team in Europe, working closely with our equipment suppliers, has done an amazing job during challenging times to commercialize this asset on time,” Weilminster adds. “We are excited to see the launch of Berry’s latest spunlace offerings incorporating our proprietary technology in the marketplace in wipes, hygiene and other specialty applications.”
Output from these investments will primarily target the wipes market, which has seen tremendous growth across multiple categories in recent years. While Berry has seen some variability in the disinfecting wipes market in various regions, the fundamentals in the market remain sound.
“In the consumer market, we are seeing higher penetration rates with wipes being found in more homes,” Weilminster says. “We are also seeing disinfecting wipes used more frequently outside of the kitchen, which of course, provides greater room for growth. During the pandemic, we saw an increased use of wipes outside of the home, and, while this usage has retracted somewhat, it did expose more consumers to disinfecting wipes, which will continue to drive growth for differentiated applications.”
Another market in transition mode is meltblown nonwovens. In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic started its global threat, Berry, which had already begun expanding its meltblown output and had a new asset under construction in Asia, stepped up these efforts installing new lines in virtually every major region of the world.
“We installed multiple meltblown assets across the world and converted some pilot and/or underutilized assets to support market demand,” says Weilminster. “While we have seen the meltblown demand for face masks return to pre-Covid normalized levels, we continue to supply this fabric into healthcare, air filtration, and multiple other markets.”
As its business continues to grow, so does its efforts to decrease the environmental impact of both its own operation and its customers’. Realizing there is no single solution to the sustainability challenges the planet faces and that it would require multiple approaches, Berry’s Impact 2025 commitment was developed a few years ago and focuses on three key pillars—product, performance and partners.
“As such, we strive as an industry leader to offer and implement solutions for practically every potential sustainability challenge,” Weilminster says. “Our commitments to pre-buying advanced recycle, ISCC+ certification in plants all over the world, our range of sustainable product options across all manufacturing platforms and markets served, and our commitment to energy consumption reduction, along with green energy usage, proves Berry’s dedication to being a part of the long-term solution.”
Earlier this year, Berry announced it had committed to reducing its absolute scope greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025—surpassing its initial goal of an 8% reduction. This target is aligned with Berry’s existing Scope 1 and 2 commitments and validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). SBTi approval confirms Berry’s ambitious value chain goal is in line with current best practice and consistent with actions required to help limit warming to 1.5°C and prevent the most damaging effects of climate change.
www.berryglobal.com
2021 Health, Hygiene, and Specialties Sales: $3.1 billion
Key Personnel
Tom Salmon, chairman and CEO; Curt Begle, president, Health, Hygiene, and Specialties Division
HHS Division Plants
U.S. and Canada: Augusta, KY; Benson, NC; Dalton, GA; McAlester, OK; Mooresville, NC; Nashville, TN; North Bay, Canada; Old Hickory, TN; Statesville, NC; Washington, GA; Waynesboro, VA
Latin America: Atlacamulco, Mexico; Cali, Colombia; Jundiaí, Brazil; Pilar, Argentina; Pouso Allegre, Brazil; San Luis Potosí, Mexico; São José dos Pinhais, Brazil
EMEIA: Aberdare, U.K.; Aschersleben, Germany; Bailleul, France; Berlin, Germany; Biesheim, France; Cujik, Netherlands; Dombühl, Germany; Maldon, U.K.; Mundra, India; Neuville-en-Ferrain, France; Tarragona, Spain; Terno d’Isola, Italy
Asia: Nanhai, China; Suzhou, China
Processes
Spunbond, meltblown, SMS, carded, composites, through air bonded, adhesive bonded, resin bonded, thermal bonded, spunlace, airlaid, aperture film, film laminates, sonic laminates, extruded laminates, thermal laminates, APEX, SPINLACE, MELTEX, REEMAY and other proprietary fabric forming, surfacing and binding systems, nonwoven and film printing, multi-layer blown film extrusion, and cast film extrusion.
Note: in addition to these specific roll-good technologies, Berry Global also offers one of the world’s leading rigid and flexible packaging portfolios for both consumer and industrial applications.
With manufacturing centers across the globe, Berry Global continues to invest in its Health, Hygiene, and Specialties business to build on and maintain its world-class, low-cost manufacturing base with an emphasis on key growth markets and regions where it continues to see incremental opportunities to invest organically in support of its unwavering commitment to global growth.
The company has added capacity for wipes substrates in North America and Europe as well as a new spunmelt nonwovens line for hygiene and medical applications in China as it continues to integrate an ambitious meltblown nonwovens expansion plan first initiated in 2020.
“The continued positive momentum from our investments, supported by our robust and growing pipeline, along with our industry leading commitment to sustainable packaging solutions, are all key factors contributing to our ongoing growth,” says Robert Weilminster, executive vice president and general manager for U.S. & Canada Hygiene.
In 2021, volume sales in its Health, Hygiene, and Specialties segment grew about 5% thanks to increased selling prices due to the pass-through of inflation, a $42 million increase from extra shipping days in fiscal 2021, and a $41 million favorable impact from foreign currency changes, partially offset by prior year divestiture sales of $34 million.
Sales will continue to increase moving forward, in part due to the company’s ambitious expansion efforts, which include the installation of a Reicofil 5 spunmelt line in Nanhai, China. Berry announced the new line in late 2020—not long after completing work on its first Reicofil 5 line at the site—and is on track to complete it later this year. It will meet forecasted market and customer growth and will be focused on high performance applications in healthcare markets in the Southeast Asia region.
“China is a growth market for Berry across the Health, Hygiene and Filtration segments as evidenced by our continued investment in the region,” Weilminster says. “China and broader Asia are experiencing all of the same economic challenges as the rest of the world, but the size and growth rate of our target markets continues to be very attractive to Berry.”
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Berry added its latest Spinlace line in Mooresville, which was completed in January 2020. The line expands the company’s proprietary APEX imaging capability with current polypropylene based materials with the ability to be retrofitted to accommodate sustainable materials.
In addition to its Spinlace capabilities, in North Carolina, Berry’s global wipes business will benefit from the addition of a new spunlace line in Cuijk, The Netherlands, increasing the company’s capacity in the region. Berry’s Evolve spunlace line, which will be made on the new line, will become commercially available in November 2022.
“Our team in Europe, working closely with our equipment suppliers, has done an amazing job during challenging times to commercialize this asset on time,” Weilminster adds. “We are excited to see the launch of Berry’s latest spunlace offerings incorporating our proprietary technology in the marketplace in wipes, hygiene and other specialty applications.”
Output from these investments will primarily target the wipes market, which has seen tremendous growth across multiple categories in recent years. While Berry has seen some variability in the disinfecting wipes market in various regions, the fundamentals in the market remain sound.
“In the consumer market, we are seeing higher penetration rates with wipes being found in more homes,” Weilminster says. “We are also seeing disinfecting wipes used more frequently outside of the kitchen, which of course, provides greater room for growth. During the pandemic, we saw an increased use of wipes outside of the home, and, while this usage has retracted somewhat, it did expose more consumers to disinfecting wipes, which will continue to drive growth for differentiated applications.”
Another market in transition mode is meltblown nonwovens. In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic started its global threat, Berry, which had already begun expanding its meltblown output and had a new asset under construction in Asia, stepped up these efforts installing new lines in virtually every major region of the world.
“We installed multiple meltblown assets across the world and converted some pilot and/or underutilized assets to support market demand,” says Weilminster. “While we have seen the meltblown demand for face masks return to pre-Covid normalized levels, we continue to supply this fabric into healthcare, air filtration, and multiple other markets.”
As its business continues to grow, so does its efforts to decrease the environmental impact of both its own operation and its customers’. Realizing there is no single solution to the sustainability challenges the planet faces and that it would require multiple approaches, Berry’s Impact 2025 commitment was developed a few years ago and focuses on three key pillars—product, performance and partners.
“As such, we strive as an industry leader to offer and implement solutions for practically every potential sustainability challenge,” Weilminster says. “Our commitments to pre-buying advanced recycle, ISCC+ certification in plants all over the world, our range of sustainable product options across all manufacturing platforms and markets served, and our commitment to energy consumption reduction, along with green energy usage, proves Berry’s dedication to being a part of the long-term solution.”
Earlier this year, Berry announced it had committed to reducing its absolute scope greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025—surpassing its initial goal of an 8% reduction. This target is aligned with Berry’s existing Scope 1 and 2 commitments and validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). SBTi approval confirms Berry’s ambitious value chain goal is in line with current best practice and consistent with actions required to help limit warming to 1.5°C and prevent the most damaging effects of climate change.
