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Consolidated Consumer and Industrial Business Units and Leadership
Changes Announced
Actions to Reduce Costs by an Additional $20 Million Annually
HARTSVILLE, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep. 15, 2009--
Sonoco (NYSE: SON) today announced actions to simplify the Company’s
business structure and provide the necessary scale in its Consumer and
Industrial packaging and services businesses to drive profitable growth
and obtain sustainable operating efficiencies, according to Harris E.
DeLoach Jr., chairman, president and CEO.
“Through a series of acquisitions and growth over the years, Sonoco has
developed into a complex organization with 19 operating divisions,
separate international organizations and various support functions,”
said DeLoach. “While this structure has served us well in the past, the
global recession has structurally changed many of our served markets. As
a result, we must change our organization to address these new market
realities and react to the changing needs of our customers. In addition,
we will shift resources to our businesses with the best opportunity for
global development so that we can meet our longer term growth and
shareholder return goals.”
In addition to streamlining the Company’s business structure to improve
operating efficiency, DeLoach said the new organizational changes will
bolster technology applications to drive new product development and
continue to expand Sonoco’s unique “One Face” customer service strategy
to grow cross-divisional sales. “Implementing these changes will in some
cases involve adding resources, including people and capital. However,
combining businesses will result in some redundancies. Overall, we
estimate that these actions will reduce costs by an additional $20
million annually,” DeLoach said, adding that redundant employees are
being offered severance pay, benefit continuation and outplacement
assistance.
Streamlined Organization
Key components of Sonoco’s more streamlined organization include:
-
Overall, consolidating 19 separate businesses into six Consumer and
Industrial business units with a direct reporting line to the
Company’s senior leadership
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Consolidating nine Consumer Packaging and Services businesses into
four global business units, headed by Charles Sullivan, executive vice
president, Consumer. Business unit changes and their direct reports
include:
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Global Rigid Paper and Closures headed by Rodger
Fuller, vice president
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Global Rigid Plastics headed by Bob
Puechl, division vice president and general manager
-
Global Flexible Packaging headed by Rob
Tiede, vice president
-
Global Services including point-of-purchase display,
fulfillment and packaging supply chain management services, also
headed by Tiede
-
Consolidating all consumer technology efforts into the Global
Consumer Technology group headed by Jeffrey Schuetz, staff
vice president
-
To better support Sonoco’s large consumer product company
customers, new accounts will be added to the Company’s unique Global
Corporate Customer program, which is focused on providing a
dedicated team of technical and commercial resources to handle the
customers’ growing global packaging and services needs. Vicki
Arthur, vice president, leads this expanded effort and
will be reviewing other potential customers to be added to the
program.
-
Consolidating 10 North American Industrial Products divisions into two
North American business units and three international divisions,
reporting to Jack Sanders, executive vice president, Industrial. North
American and international business units and direct reports include:
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North American Converting including tubes and cores,
protective packaging and paperboard specialties divisions, headed
by John
Colyer, vice president
-
North America Primary Materials Group including
paperboard, Sonoco Recycling, adhesives, forest products and
machinery manufacturing divisions, headed by Jim
Bowen, senior vice president
-
European Industrial Group including tubes and cores, paper
and recycling operations, headed by Eddie
Smith, vice president, Europe
-
South America Industrial Group including tubes and cores,
paper and recycling operations, headed by James
Brown, division vice president and general manager
-
Asia Pacific Industrial Group headed by Kevin Bryans,
division vice president and general manager
-
Consolidating all industrial technology efforts into the Global
Industrial Technology group headed by David Rhodes,
director.
“Sonoco, like most manufacturing businesses, remains vulnerable to the
fragile global economy and the impact the lingering recession is having
on consumers and our customers,” said DeLoach. “To be successful during
these uncertain times we must remain focused on improving areas we can
control, including simplifying our business structure and scaling the
Company for program growth, improved innovation and obtaining
sustainable operating efficiencies.”
About Sonoco
Founded in 1899, Sonoco is a $4.1 billion global manufacturer of
industrial and consumer products and provider of packaging services,
with more than 300 operations in 35 countries, serving customers in some
85 nations. For more information on the Company, visit our Web site at http://www.sonoco.com/.
Links to print quality photos:
Vickie Arthur (http://www.box.net/shared/static/358zh6xogc.tif)
Jim Bowen (http://www.box.net/shared/static/q4pd3t1k40.tif)
James Brown (http://www.box.net/shared/static/kzfek7mbuk.tif)
John Colyer (http://www.box.net/shared/static/jvcphel22f.tif)
Rodger Fuller (http://www.box.net/shared/static/xkaenzgir5.tif)
Bob Puechl (http://www.box.net/shared/static/ze8n3a20o0.tif)
Rob Tiede (http://www.box.net/shared/static/9ei8z3127b.tif)
Eddie Smith (http://www.box.net/shared/static/7850u131c1.tif)
Source: Sonoco
Sonoco
Roger Schrum, 843-339-6018
roger.schrum@sonoco.com