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January 25, 2022 08:24 AM

Kickstart: A corporate soap opera

Rhoda Miel
Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
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    A corporate soap opera

    The activist investor Nelson Peltz and his hedge fund company Trian Partners have taken on DuPont Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. in the past. Now they're making plans for global consumer products brand Unilever plc.

    Peltz and his firm haven't said what their plan is for Unilever, the owner of Dove soap, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Vasoline, Ben & Jerry's ice cream and dozens of other brands. But Trian typically buys enough shares in a company to call for placing its own officials — including Peltz — onto a board of directors where it calls for practices to increase shareholder wealth. In 2015, Peltz fought for a place on the board of DuPont, and although the materials company successfully fought him off, just a few months later it ousted its then-CEO, Ellen Kullman, before merging with Dow Chemical Co.

    At P&G in 2018, Peltz won a fight to be placed on the board, stepping down only after the Cincinnati-based consumer products company agreed to some of his demands.

    Unilever, although it does not make its own packaging, is a big enough force in consumer products that its requirements for sustainability, material selection and other options drive a lot of decisions made by its packaging suppliers.

    The company is at risk because of a gamble it took recently in a failed bid to buy GlaxoSmithKline plc's consumer health care business, Bloomberg writes.

    Bloomberg also cited sources that Unilever will cut "numerous" regional and divisional executives to try and produce a leaner corporate structure that will respond more rapidly to changing conditions.

    Keep your eyes out for further updates.

     

    Getting live news

    Plastics News is adding a little more context behind our stories for subscribers on our website.

    Senior reporter Frank Esposito and Editor Don Loepp have been doing the monthly Polymer Points Live chat for a while now. Frank has been covering the resin market for more than 20 years, so he has a lot of contacts and information that go beyond what we have room for in our print stories. The web chat provides the opportunity for him to share more.

    This year, we're doing similar web-based conversations for other big topics facing the plastics industry: the big economic drivers of change; bans and other public policy decisions; and the continuing drive for a more sustainable industry.

    Bill Wood, PN's economics editor, will lead off the new series of live events as he chats with Don on Jan. 26 at 2 p.m. Eastern time for Numbers That Matter Live. This week's print issue of Plastics News includes Bill's take on how rising energy prices will impact plastics makers.

    Karen Laird, editor of our sister magazine Sustainable Plastics, will join Don at 10 a.m. Eastern on Feb. 1 for Sustainable Plastics Live, while Steve Toloken, our Washington-based assistant managing editor, will take on Plastics in Politics Live at 2 p.m. on Feb. 8.

    The livestreams (and replays of them) are free to Plastics News subscribers. You can find links to register for all of the Live events here.

     

    Chip growth

    Will a $20 billion investment by Intel Corp. in Ohio help to eliminate the global computer chip shortage?

    Intel joined state leaders Jan. 21 in announcing plans to build a chip manufacturing site on a 926-acre site in Licking County, Ohio, near Columbus. The investment includes construction of two state-of-the-art factories for microchips that represent Intel's "most advanced process technologies," our sister paper Rubber News writes.

    The lack of chips has stymied economic recovery from the shutdowns earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, with automakers and their suppliers the most well-known firms hit by the shortage.

    Don't expect the announcement to trigger a sudden recovery, however. Intel expects to begin production in 2025. However, the company also said it will contribute $100 million to establish partnerships with educational institutions in an effort to build "a pipeline of talent and bolster research programs in the region."

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