AKRON, OHIO - Larger film and sheet producers spurred growth in the market in 1995 by continuing the acquisition and consolidation trends that characterized the previous year. Chief among the moves, which will affect next year's rankings, was the purchase of mammoth Mobil Chemical Co.'s plastic division by Packaging Corp. of America Inc., a division of Houston-based Tenneco Inc. The purchase by Northbrook, Ill.-based PCA, with estimated sales of $91.2 million in 1994, will vault the firm, ranked 51st in the 1995 ranking, into the top echelon of film and sheet makers in 1996.
Pittsford, N.Y.-based Mobil Chemical's plastics division, maker of Hefty-brand and Baggies-brand bags, ranked second this year with $1 billion in sales. Mobil's film division, however, a leading producer of oriented polypropylene film, is not part of the purchase.
Cryovac Division of W.R. Grace & Co. of Boca Raton, Fla., moved up from seventh in 1994 to fifth in 1995 with an estimated $500 million in annual sales. Duncan, S.C.-based Cryovac is building coextrusion capability at its Seneca, S.C., plant, and boosted bag production at South Carolina, Iowa and Ontario plants as part of a $300 million expansion and update plan worldwide.
Minneapolis-based film giant Bemis Co. Inc. moved up a notch from fourth in 1994's ranking to third, and might move up next year with the purchase of Banner Packaging Inc. of Oshkosh, Wis., which the company anticipates will be complete by early 1996.