Sussex IM : In The News
Rexam sells Wisconsin container molding plant to management group
SUSSEX, WIS. (Dec. 28, 3:30 p.m. ET) -- On Jan. 1, Rexam plc will sell one of its packaging manufacturing facilities to existing management — including the former president of the company that sold the plant to Rexam in 1999. Terms were not disclosed London-based personal-care giant Rexam agreed to sell an injection molding plant in Sussex, Wis., to a group led by Keith Everson, who was business unit manager for the home and personal care unit of Rexam Personal Care, company spokesman Greg Brooke said Dec. 28.
The 110,000-square-foot plant employs 210. Brooke said, and will continue contract manufacturing for Rexam under the name Sussex IM Inc., he said.
The Sussex plant molds containers for industrial uses, Brooke said, and even though those are not a core business for Rexam, the company valued the facility as “a world-class manufacturer,” according to a Dec. 23 internal memo he provided.
Everson was president of the former Sussex Plastics Inc. when, in 1999, the company was sold to Rexam. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Dec. 24 that Rexam paid $31 million for Sussex Plastics, which the newspaper said was founded in 1977 and got most of its sales before the Rexam takeover from the design and manufacture of cosmetics compacts.
Reached by telephone, Everson would not comment on the past or present deals, citing confidentiality agreements.
According to the internal memo, the decision to sell the Sussex plant was part of Rexam Personal Care’s strategy to focus on the toiletries, cosmetic and household goods segments.
For the first six months of 2009, Rexam posted a profit of 218 million pounds ($349 million) on sales of 2.5 billion pounds ($4 billion).
Rexam in 2008 reported 466 million pounds ($746 million) in profit on sales of 4.6 billion pounds ($7.4 billion). Plastic packaging made up 28 percent of the sales total, about 1.3 billion pounds ($2.1 billion).
In a mid-year presentation to investors, Rexam officials had highlighted plans in the second half of the year to reduce overcapacity in North America by 15 percent, including the loss of about 270 jobs.
