Kickstart: An IPO grand slam?

A company you probably never heard of — made up of sporting equipment brand names you've definitely heard of — is about to begin trading publicly in the first major initial public offering of 2024.

Amer Sports Inc. could raise as much as $1.8 billion selling 100 million shares priced at up to $18 per share. That would make it the biggest IPO in the U.S. since September 2023, Bloomberg notes.

It makes Wilson tennis rackets, Atomic skis, Salomon outdoor equipment, Louisville Slugger bats, EvoShield leg and arm guards, and Arc'teryx clothing. While the bulk of its production — including carbon-fiber rackets and skis — is in China, it does have some limited composites manufacturing in the U.S., including high-end bicycle components made by Enve in Ogden, Utah.

In paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company brags its Salomon-brand gear was used by athletes receiving 28 medals at the most recent Winter Olympics and that its Wilson rackets were part of 643 Grand Slam titles.

The company is based in Helsinki and backed by China's largest athletic apparel producer, Anta Sports Products Ltd. Anta bought a controlling stake in Amer in 2019. Amer reported sales of $3.5 billion in 2022. It has 10,800 employees worldwide.

Becoming one of the best places to work is exceptional. Making it to that status 10 times is amazing, but two companies have managed just that: materials supplier Asahi Kasei Plastics North America of Fowlervile, Mich., and injection molder Team 1 Plastics of Albion, Mich.

They are among the 16 businesses that will be recognized as one of the Plastics News Best Places to Work in the plastics industry for 2024.

According to research compiled by Jordan Vitick, PN special projects editor, there are two other companies that have made the list nine times: injection molder Plastic Components Inc. of Germantown, Wis., and sheet distributor ePlastics of San Diego.

This is the 11th year for the BPTW recognition.

The list is developed through a two-part survey with both employer assessments and employee feedback. The final ranking of this year's finalists will be announced during the PN Executive Forum March 11-13 in Clearwater Beach, Fla.

A new American Chemistry Council report says it's time for a road map to lay out plans for recycling of durable plastics, such as those used in construction, infrastructure and the auto industry.

Gina Oliver, director of durables markets at ACC, tells PN's Steve Toloken the auto industry "seems to be the most mature at this point," thanks to end-of-life vehicle goals from the European Union.

But it's clear auto plastics recycling has a long way to go. A lot of the plastics in auto interiors ended up shredded into a pile of mixed-material fluff. And even large parts, such as bumper fascia and lighting, are hard to recycle. Consider Ford's decision in 2020 to unexpectedly pull out of a recycling program for fascia.

This would seem to indicate that the effort to recycle more durable plastics parts really does have a "tremendous amount of work to do," as Oliver says.