Tredegar Industries plans to expand its Film Products division's global reach by opening a film manufacturing plant in Poland in 1999.
The plant will serve personal-hygiene markets throughout Europe and Russia with specialty polyethylene films.
Although the firm has not decided between L¢dz and Warsaw, the site will be selected by the end of the year. Tredegar officials have an idea of the plant's size and capacity but will not disclose those details until they pick a site, they said.
``The establishment of a manufacturing presence in Poland is a logical extension of our globalization strategy,'' Anthony J. Rinaldi, president of Tredegar Film Products, said in a news release. ``Since 1989, our plant in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, has been able to meet steadily growing demand from European markets. This new facility will increase penetration of markets throughout Europe and in Russia.''
Upon completion, the plant will become Richmond, Va.-based Tredegar's fifth manufacturing facility outside the United States. Besides the Netherlands, other locations include SÃŒo Paulo, Brazil, and San Juan, Argentina. A new plant in Guangzhou, China, is scheduled to begin production in the first half of 1998.
Tredegar Film supplies embossed and permeable films for disposable personal products. It also produces films for packaging, medical, industrial, agricultural and landscaping markets.
The firm placed No. 19 in Plastics News' North American film and sheet ranking this year with relevant sales of $248.2 million for last year. It operates six U.S. plants and employs about 800.