MOSCOW (MRC) -- A. Schulman has announced that it is consolidating its North American production facilities, reported the company on its site.
As part of its ongoing review of its manufacturing footprint, the company will close its plant in Stryker, Ohio, in April 2015 and shift the plant's production to other facilities in North America.
The Stryker plant has been producing products primarily for markets in the United States and Mexico. It employs approximately 70 people and was part of A. Schulman's acquisition of the Ferro Specialty Plastics Business, which was completed in July 2014.
Additionally, the company announced that it is making SG&A reductions in North America as part of its ongoing effort to drive further synergies from recent acquisitions and eliminate duplicate functions. As a result of this effort, the company expects headcount reductions at various locations to total approximately 10 people.
The majority of the costs associated with the manufacturing consolidation, approximately USD2.5 million, are expected to be included in the company's financial results for the fiscal 2015 first quarter ending November 30, 2014. The annualized savings, approximately USD3 million, will be realized in the second half of fiscal 2015. A portion of these savings were part of the previously stated USD5.5 million in net synergies related to the acquisition of Ferro's Specialty Plastics business.
As MRC wrote previously, in June 2014, A. Schulman agreed to purchase a majority of the assets of the specialty plastics business of Ferro Corp. for USD91 million in cash. The purchase agreement includes four facilities located in the US as well as operations in Spain.
A. Schulman is a global plastics supplier, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, and a leading international supplier of high-performance plastic compounds and resins, which are used as raw materials in a variety of markets. A. Schulman has 33 manufacturing facilities globally. A. Schulman's fiscal third-quarter earnings fell 69% amid continued sluggishness in European markets and higher-than-expected costs in Latin America, where the company has been consolidating its Brazilian operations.
MRC