PolyOne records sixth straight year of earnings growth

Avon Lake, Ohio — North American compounding leader PolyOne Corp. is on the right track in 2016, officials said May 12 at the firm's annual meeting at its headquarters in Avon Lake.

2015 “was yet another year of significant accomplishment of our Four Pillar strategy,” Chairman, President and CEO Robert Patterson said. “We solidified our leadership team and further developed our culture of excellence.”

Patterson added the chairman title at the meeting. Former PolyOne leader Stephen Newlin was attending his last annual meeting in that capacity. Patterson had assumed the president and CEO titles from Newlin in 2014.

The Four Pillars for PolyOne are specialization, globalization, operational excellence and commercial excellence. Other 2015 accomplishments for the firm, according to Patterson, included improving employee safety — shown by a lower injury rate — as well as increasing adjusted earnings per share and refinancing debt with lower interest rates.

PolyOne now has posted six consecutive years of adjusted EPS growth. Its vitality index also shows that 43 percent of its sales come from products developed in the last five years. The firm's Platinum Vision plan calls for it to generate more than 80 percent of operating profit from its specialty platform by 2020.

Short-term challenges faced by PolyOne in 2015 included a weaker euro, raw material volatility and the integration of assets acquired from the purchase of Spartech Corp. In spite of these challenges, Patterson said that the firm “didn't deviate from the Four Pillars.”

Patterson also credited Newlin with turning the firm around in his time as CEO. “Steve Newlin not only wrote the specialty transformation playbook, he executed it extremely well,” Patterson said.

On May 3, Newlin was named president and CEO of Univar Inc., a global chemical distributor based in Downers Grove, Ill. Univar's Distrupol unit — a major European resin distributor — does not compete with PolyOne's own resin distribution unit, which does most of its business in North America.

PolyOne's 2015 profit surged 85 percent to almost $145 million, even as sales fell 12 percent to just under $3.4 billion. The firm in 2015 also posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.96 — the highest in its 15-year history.

The first quarter of 2016 was a good one for PolyOne, which ranks as North America's largest compounder and concentrates makers and as one of its largest resin distributors. The firm's profit was up 30 percent to $39 million and EPS up 35 percent to 46 cents, even as sales dipped 3 percent to $847 million vs. the year-ago period.

On Wall Street, PolyOne also has fared well so far in 2016, starting the year just under $31 but closing at $36.56 on May 12.