Exhibit 99.1
[POLYONE LOGO]
N E W S R E L E A S E
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
POLYONE ANNOUNCES RESTRUCTURING IN ITS ELASTOMERS BUSINESS
CLEVELAND - October 29, 2003 - PolyOne Corporation (NYSE: POL) announced today
that it will close two manufacturing plants within its Elastomers and
Performance Additives business segment as it acts on restructuring initiatives
to reduce costs and bring capacity in line with sales demand.
PolyOne's DeForest, Wisconsin, and Wynne, Arkansas, plants are to close around
the end of 2003. The Company also plans to reduce the number of sales and
administrative positions within the business. These combined moves will
translate into the reduction of approximately 230 positions across the business.
"While this business has maintained profitability and positive cash flow, the
effects of raw material inflation, offshore competition and geographic movement
of some key markets have decreased operating margins," said Thomas A.
Waltermire, chairman and chief executive officer. "We are determined to reduce
excess production capacity and continue to realign our cost structure in order
to improve our profitability."
On October 21, PolyOne announced that Elastomers and Performance Additives was
one of three business operations being considered for divestment. The Company
has set no deadline for divesting the business. Elastomers and Performance
Additives had 2002 sales of $364 million, representing 14 percent of total
Company sales.
The DeForest and Wynne plants manufacture a variety of products, including
compounded elastomers and dispersed rubber chemicals. PolyOne intends to
carefully transition these products to other elastomer manufacturing facilities
with excess capacity at Burton, Ohio; Dyersburg, Tennessee; and Kennedale,
Texas.
PolyOne projects that this restructuring action in Elastomers and Performance
Additives will yield annualized pre-tax earnings improvement of $7.5 million.
Total restructuring expense is projected to approximate $15 million, of which
approximately $7.5 million will be non-cash and related to asset write-offs.
Estimated 2003 fourth-quarter restructuring expense is $11.5 million, with
minimal funding of the cash closure costs anticipated in 2003.
Employees affected by the plant closings will be eligible for severance benefits
and outplacement services, and will be able to apply for job openings at other
locations within the Elastomers business group.
ABOUT POLYONE
PolyOne Corporation, with 2002 revenues of $2.5 billion, is an international
polymer services company with operations in thermoplastic compounds, specialty
resins, specialty polymer formulations, engineered films, color and additive
systems, elastomer compounding and thermoplastic resin distribution.
Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, PolyOne has employees at manufacturing sites
in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and joint ventures in North
America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Information on the Company's products
and services can be found at www.polyone.com.
PolyOne Media & Investor Contact: Dennis Cocco
Vice President Investor Relations
& Communications
440.930.1538
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
In this press release, statements that are not reported financial results or
other historical information are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking
statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not
guarantees of future performance. They are based on management's expectations
that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could
cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by
the forward-looking statements. You can identify these statements by the fact
that they do not relate strictly to historic or current facts. They use words
such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan,"
"believe" and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any
discussion of future operating or financial performance. In particular, these
include statements relating to future actions; prospective changes in raw
material costs, product pricing or product demand; future performance or results
of current and anticipated market conditions and market strategies; sales
efforts; expenses; the outcome of contingencies such as legal proceedings; and
financial results. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially
include, but are not limited to: (1) an inability to achieve or delays in
achieving or achievement of less than the anticipated financial benefit from the
initiatives related to restructuring programs including cost reduction and
employee productivity goals; (2) a delay or inability to achieve targeted debt
level reductions through divestitures or other means; (3) the effect on foreign
operations of currency fluctuations, tariffs, nationalization, exchange
controls, limitations on foreign investment in local businesses and other
political, economic and regulatory risks; (4) changes in U.S., regional or world
polymer and/or rubber consumption growth rates affecting the Company's markets;
(5) changes in global industry capacity or in the rate at which anticipated
changes in industry capacity come online in the polyvinyl chloride (PVC),
chlor-alkali, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) or other industries in which the
Company participates; (6) fluctuations in raw material prices, quality and
supply and in energy prices and supply, in particular fluctuations outside the
normal range of industry cycles; (7) production outages or material costs
associated with scheduled or unscheduled maintenance programs; (8) costs or
difficulties and delays related to the operation of joint venture entities; (9)
lack of day-to-day operating control, including procurement of raw materials, of
equity or joint venture affiliates; (10) partial control over investment
decisions and dividend distribution policy of the OxyVinyls partnership and
other minority equity holdings of the Company; (11) an inability to launch new
products and/or services within the Company's various businesses; (12) the
possibility of goodwill impairment; (13) an inability to maintain any required
licenses or permits; (14) an inability to comply with any environmental laws and
regulations; (15) an inability or delay in finding buyers of non-core assets for
reasonable and acceptable terms; (16) an inability to access the receivables
sale facility as a result of breaching covenants; (17) any poor performance of
our pension plan assets and any obligation on our part to fund our pension plan;
and (18) any or a delay or inability to bring the North American colors and
performance additives and the engineered materials product platforms to
profitability.
We cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will be realized,
although we believe we have been prudent in our plans and assumptions.
Achievement of future results is subject to risks, uncertainties and inaccurate
assumptions. Should known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, or
should underlying assumptions prove inaccurate, actual results could vary
materially from those anticipated, estimated or projected. Investors should bear
this in mind as they consider forward-looking statements.
We undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You are
advised, however, to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects
in our Form 10-Q, 8-K and 10-K reports to the Securities and Exchange
Commission. You should understand that it is not possible to predict or identify
all such factors. Consequently, you should not consider any such list to be a
complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties. (Ref. #10203)
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