Solo Cup plans to close some U.S. sites
LAKE FOREST, ILL. — Solo Cup Co. plans to close some of its U.S. manufacturing facilities by the second quarter of 2012, the company said in a May 11 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Lake Forest manufacturer of foodservice packaging and tableware did not specify which sites would close, but said the project “to further optimize our manufacturing footprint” will cost between $113 million and $133 million.
The costs would include $4 million to $6 million in severance payments, $17 million to $20 million in equipment-related expenses, and $4 million to $6 million in post-closure lease payments, the company said in the filing.
In a May 12 e-mail, spokeswoman Angie Gorman said the company was required to disclose the financial impact of the potential closings, but added: “We are not prepared at this early stage to announce all of the specifics of our plan.”
For the first quarter, Solo Cup reported losses of $16.5 million on sales of $344.9 million, compared to losses of $10.2 million on sales of $349.6 million for the year-ago period. Solo Cup reported full-year 2009 losses of $35.7 million on sales of $1.503 billion.
Bemis to purchase remainder of Dixie Toga
NEENAH, WIS. — Flexible packaging giant Bemis Co. Inc. of Neenah said its Brazilian subsidiary Dixie Toga SA of São Paulo will submit a tender offer for its publicly traded stock, with support from preferred shareholders who have agreed to participate.
The total cost of the shares is expected to range between $50 million and $55 million, Bemis said in a May 14 news release. If it passes Brazilian regulatory muster, management expects the buyout to be completed during the third quarter of 2010.
Neenah-based Bemis bought Dixie Toga in 2005 for $250 million, which included all of the South American firm's common stock and 43 percent of the nonvoting preferred stock; Bemis also took on $35 million of Dixie Toga's debt.
Founded in 1995 from the merger of Brazilian packaging companies Toga and Dixie Lalekla, Dixie Toga manufactures packaging for the food, personal hygiene, tobacco, pharmaceutical and cosmetic markets.
Spanish auto molder investing in Mexico
VALLS, SPAIN — Spanish auto parts producer Plastics Alt Camp SA plans to invest 385,000 euros ($480,000) to boost production at its manufacturing operation in the Mexican state of Querétaro.
The Valls-based injection molder, which established its Mexican offshoot in Santiago de Querétaro in 2006, will raise local capacity in response to increased orders and greater demand for more complex components, according to the Spanish state Institute for Foreign Trade.
As a result of the project, involving an overall investment of nearly 553,000 euros ($688,000), the company will hire 12 workers during the next two years. The company plans to diversify its client portfolio and add value to its products.
Funding for the expansion is being provided in the form of a loan from the Spanish state development finance company Cofides SA, which specializes in financing projects involving Spanish businesses in countries with emerging economies worldwide.
Sales slows for rapid prototyping units
FORT COLLINS. COLO. — The recession cooled off the hot sales growth for rapid prototyping machines, but the industry — dubbed “additive manufacturing” — continues to get a boost from very low-cost three-dimensional printers, according to a report released May 5 by Wohlers Associates Inc.
Because of demand for open-source 3D printers, unit sales of additive manufacturing equipment grew by 13.9 percent worldwide, the report said.
Instead of rapid prototyping, Wohlers Associates now uses the term additive manufacturing. That is a process of joining materials to objects from 3D-model data, usually layer by layer (as opposed to subtractive manufacturing such as machining).
Wohlers Associates of Fort Collins said the industry has enjoyed a compounded annual growth rate for sales of 26.4 percent throughout its 22-year history. But the CAGR slowed to 3.3 percent during the past three years, and 2009 was “the slowest in many years, by far,” the report said.
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