Berry Plastics made its way to the top through the acquisition of Avintiv (formerly Polymer Group Inc.) in 2015. This $2 billion nonwovens business, with plants all over the world, is now a large part of Berry’s Health, Hygiene and Specialties division. Avintiv, of course, grabbed the title away from Freudenberg in 2014 after years of aggressive investment.

Avintiv’s investment strategy has done more than just change the  No. 1 position in the rankings. Former top companies like Fiberweb, Companhia Providencia and Dounor are now a part of Berry, opening up the door for a slew of new companies.

This year, we welcome three new companies to the report—Israel’s Shalag Nonwovens; Saudi German Nonwovens and Japan’s Daiwabo. The international scope of these companies reflects just how global the nonwovens industry has become. New manufacturers are appearing all over the world, looking for new customers of hygiene products, filtration media, geotextiles and more.

In addition to new companies, there are a lot of changes among the existing players in this report. DuPont, this year the world’s fourth largest