By Frank Esposito
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
Published: January 7, 2014 4:52 pm ET
Updated: January 7, 2014 5:01 pm ET
PolyOne Corp.’s ongoing realignment of assets it acquired from Spartech Corp. will result in the closing of an administrative office in Washington, Pa.
Administrative work done in Washington now will be done at a PolyOne office in Seabrook, Texas, officials with Avon Lake, Ohio-based PolyOne said in a Jan. 7 news release. Closing the Washington office will result in the loss of about 20 jobs.
Former Spartech plants in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, and Lockport, N.Y., now will operate as part of PolyOne’s Producer Services business, which provides toll compounding for customers and is part of the firm’s Performance Products and Solutions business unit.
The Lockport and Ramos Arizpe sites both make compounds and concentrates — primarily based on polypropylene — for the automotive and building and construction markets.
The Lockport plant previously had been part of PolyOne’s Specialty Engineered Materials (SEM) unit, which primarily makes compounds and concentrates based on engineering resins and other high-value materials.
The Ramos Arizpe plant previously served both PolyOne’s SEM and Designed Structures and Solutions (DSS) units. DCC includes Spartech’s former custom sheet and rollstock and packaging technologies businesses.
PolyOne Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Robert Patterson singled out the Ramos Arizpe plant in the release, saying that PolyOne’s multi-national customers “are increasingly concentrating production in North America and often choose Mexico as a strategic location.”
The new moves come about six months after PolyOne announced it would close six former Spartech plants in the U.S. by the end of 2014. Closing those plants — which made sheet, film and color and engineered materials — will eliminate about 250 jobs and produce $25 million in annual savings, officials said in mid-July.
PolyOne paid $393 million to acquire Spartech in early 2013. Spartech had been a major producer of plastics sheet, as well as color and additive compounds, but had lost more than $70 million combined in its 2010 and 2011 fiscal years.
“After nine months, we remain extremely pleased with the Spartech acquisition,” PolyOne Chairman, President and CEO Stephen Newlin said in the Jan. 7 release. “We continue to see upside opportunities to expand our portfolio of offerings and better serve our customers.”
Newlin added that PolyOne remains committed to delivering 50 cents in earnings-per-share accretion from the deal during 2015.
In the first nine months of 2013, PolyOne posted sales of more than $2.8 billion, including sales from businesses acquired from Spartech. That’s a jump of almost 29 percent versus the same period in 2012. The firm’s nine-month profit more than tripled to $218.5 million in the same comparison, but most of that amount came from discontinued operations.
On Wall Street, PolyOne’s per-share stock price was under $24 as recently as May, but grew steadily during the rest of 2013 and was at $35.20 in early trading Jan. 7. | 
