Tekni-Plex to cease operations at specialty PVC resins facility in Burlington, N.J., eliminate 53 jobs by May

Liling Tan

SOMERVILLE, N.J. , March 6, 2009 (press release) – Tekni-Plex, Inc. announced today that, in conjunction with its ongoing efforts to improve business performance across the organization, the Company will cease operations at its specialty resins facility in Burlington, New Jersey. The plant is operated by Burlington Resins, Inc., a Tekni-Plex subsidiary.

The Burlington facility produces specialty resins that are used in a variety of product applications, particularly in the troubled housing and automotive sectors. Burlington Resins has not been profitable in recent years. The facility's 53 employees are being notified that their positions at the plant will likely be eliminated by early May 2009.

Paul Young, Chief Executive Officer of Tekni-Plex, said, "The Burlington business has struggled with significantly higher costs for raw materials and energy. We explored a number of other alternatives that would have allowed us keep the business operational, such as joint ventures or a sale, but we concluded that none of these are feasible at this time. We appreciate the hard work and dedication demonstrated by the employees in Burlington and regret that market conditions have made it necessary to cease operations at this location."

Tekni-Plex said that its other businesses, including the compounds business, are functioning as usual and are unaffected by the Burlington closure. In fact, Tekni-Plex has recently started new production lines in Belfast, UK and Suzhou, China to expand its medical compounds business.

About Tekni-Plex, Inc.

Tekni-Plex is a global, diversified manufacturer of packaging, packaging products and materials, as well as tubing products. The Company primarily serves the food, healthcare and consumer markets. It has built leadership positions in its core markets, and focuses on vertically integrated production of highly specialized products. Tekni-Plex has operations in the United States, Belgium, Italy, Belfast, China and Argentina.

The Company's operations are aligned under two business segments: Packaging and Tubing Products. Representative product lines in the Packaging segment include foam egg cartons; pharmaceutical blister films; poultry and meat processor trays; closure liners; aerosol and pump packaging components; and foam plates. Representative product lines in the Tubing Products segment include garden and irrigation hose; medical tubing; and aeration hose. The Company also manufactures other products that do not fit in either of these segments, including vinyl compounds.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.