2006 top nonwovens manufacturing report

Nonwovens Industry, Sept, 2006

Alphabetical Listing

(company--ranking/ last year's ranking) Ahlstrom--6/6 Albis--36/ * Asahi Kasei--16/12 Avgol--18/25 BBA--4/4 British Vita--17/14 Buckeye--8/9 Colbond--15/8 Companhia Providencia 9/40 Concert Industries--26/27 DuPont--2/2 Fibertex--13/16 Foss Manufacturing--27/18 Freudenberg--1/1 Georgia-Pacific--21/21 Hollingsworth & Vose--14/13 Jacob Holm--31/32 Japan Vilene--11/10 Johns Manville--7/7 Kimberly-Clark--3/3 KNH--39/39 Kuraray--38/37 Lantor--40/41 Lydall--25/24 Mitsui Chemicals--24/23 Orlandi--27/28 Owens-Corning--10/11 Pegas--19/30 PGI--5/5 Precision Custom Coatings--37/38 Propex Fabrics--11/35 Polyfelt--30/22 Sandler AG--2 1/15 Suominen Nonwovens--33/29 Textilgruppe Hof--31/31 Toray Saehan--29/36 Toyobo--21/19 Union Industries--35/ * Unitika--34/34 Western Nonwovens--19/20

* new to this year's survey

THE TOP COMPANIES REPORT 2006

1 Freudenberg

Nonwovens

Weinheim, Germany

www.freudenberg.com

$1.4 billion

Key Personnel

Management Board: Stephan Tanda, president and CEO, Dr. Rene Wollert, CFO; Walter Schwarz, managing director, North America; Georg Brasch, managing director, supply chain and restructuring; Worldwide Divisions: Andreas Kreuter and Gerhard Schaut general managers of interlinings; Bill Casey, general manager of tuft and Jorg Sievert, general manager of filter

Plants

Weinheim, Germany; Neuenburg, Germany; Kaiser--slautern, Germany; Greetland, U.K.; Colmar, France; Barcelona, Spain; St. Omero, Italy; Cape Town, South Africa; San Martin/Buenos Aires, Argentina; Jacarei, Brazil; Suzhou, China; Changchun, China ; Nantong, China; Yang Mei Tao-Yuan, Taiwan; Tayuan, Taiwan; Durham, NC; Hopkinsville, KY and Pyungtaek, South Korea (Korea Vilene Company)

Processes

Drylaid staple fiber, wetlaid, spunbonded, meltblown, electrostatic spun microfiber, needlepunched, thermal bonded, chemical bonded, water entanglement

ISO Status

All locations are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified; locations serving the automotive industry are QS 9000 certified; 25% of the plants are OSHAS 18001 certified

Brand Names

Vilene, Viledon, Vilmed, Pellon, MicronAir, Vlieseline, Vildona, Fliselina, Lutradur, Lutrasil, Evolon, Comfortemp, Novolon, Vitech, Celestia, Soundtex

Major Markets

Apparel interlinings, filtration, medical, protective clothing, automotive interior trim, electrical insulation, electrical specialties, home furnishings, industrial wipes, hygiene, shoe components, coating substrates, carpet backings, landscape fabrics, geotextiles, agriculture, furniture and bedding and industrial nonwoven specialties

SALES GREW SLIGHTLY FOR THE WORLD'S largest roll goods producer in 2005. Sales declines in Europe and the U.S., caused largely by the continued shifting of garment production into Asia, were offset by gains in Asia and Latin America, according to company spokesman Christof Schroeder.

In order to stave off increased raw material costs and competitive pressure in the automotive and textile markets, in October Freudenberg initiated a restructuring of its German nonwovens facilities. The plan will save Freudenberg 30 million [euro] from a combination of wage concessions, increases in weekly work hours, shift of labor intensive operations to Eastern Europe and staff cutbacks. The moves are designed to safeguard the German sites in the long term. "We have to operate more efficiently at our German sites and concentrate primarily on high technology production divisions there," said Stephan Tanda, president and CEO of Freudenberg Nonwovens. "If we want to keep our German sites--and that is our firm resolve--then there is no alternative to the measures we have announced."

The cutbacks in Germany involve 250 jobs in Weinheim,, 50 positions in Kaiserslautern and a further 20 in Bochum, Germany, so the total number of jobs to be cut is 320. Kaiserslautern, in particular, will benefit from the restructuring; a technology center at the site will be devoted to high technology automotive cabin air filter and spunbond production, which will create 58 news jobs at the site.

The difficulties that led up to this restructuring effort were largely caused by external factors including raw material cost increases of some E15 million per year. At the same time, considerable competitive pressure in the market has resulted in lower sales revenues, particularly in key European markets such as automotive and textiles, according to the company.

The impact of these factors have been cushioned to some degree by Freudenberg's $40 million corporate restructuring program, announced in 2002 and completed last year, which was designed to meet customer demands more quickly by streamlining the company's five divisions--tufts, hygiene/medical, filter, interlinings and technical nonwovens--to operate with increased customer focus. The plan called for a reconfiguration of the divisions to make them self-sufficient in product development, marketing, sales and services as well as responsible for the production and the plants and the lines. Now each Freudenberg facility is responsible for specific market segments rather than offering a range of products at each site. In Europe, the Kaiserslautern, Germany site is responsible for the tuft, filtration and hygiene/medical divisions, Weinheim, Germany houses the interlinings and filtration businesses and the Parets, Spain and Neuenberg, Germany sites house technical nonwovens. The Greetland, U.K. facility is responsible for hygiene and medical products and Colmar, France holds Freudenberg's Evolon business. The reconfiguration also called for the addition and replacement of lines throughout Europe.