Century Club Glatfelter www.glatfelter.com / Headquarters: York, Pa. / Employees: 4,400 / Specialty: Paper and packaging manufacturer Dante Parrini, CEO: We ve leveraged the things we were good at and found adjacent applications. MAP FOR GROWTH HEADQUARTERED IN PENNSYLVANIA, GLATFELTER HAS TRANSFORMED ITSELF INTO A GLOBAL ENTERPRISE WITH CONTINUED GROWTH ON THE HORIZON. BY JAMIE MORGAN AS PART OF ITS SPECIALTY PAPERS DIVISION, GLATFELTER MANUFACTURES PRODUCTS SUCH AS PLAYING CARDS AND POSTAGE STAMPS. Although Glatfelter is a 150-yearold company, 50 percent of its revenue comes from products in its portfolio that are less than five years old. That s because the company has always focused on using historical know-how to garner future growth. Its foundation may be rooted in the specialty-printing world, but Glatfelter has branched out through acquisition and organic growth into adjacent industries, continuously building off and adding on to its capabilities. The company was founded in 1864 by Swiss-German papermaker Philip H. Glatfelter, who bought a defunct newspaper mill with money from his life savings and borrowed from family members. He transformed the mill to produce specialty paper, setting a precedent of flexibility and innovation that continues at the company today. Glatfelter CEO Dante Parrini says that although specialty paper remains a growing business for the company, the past few years have been focused on breaking into younger markets. We ve been producing fine printing and writing paper since 1864, Parrini says. But as the market reached maturity or entered decline we found it necessary to diversify our portfolio. Over the last 10 years, we ve been more actively reshaping our portfolio and chose market segments and technology that we thought represented the best strategic fit for Glatfelter and provided plenty of opportunity for profitable growth. Three Units, One Goal What started with one facility in Pennsylvania is now a global operation with 11 facilities on three continents. And instead of specializing in 30 paperpackaginginternational.com FALL 2014
Glatfelter «one industry, Glatfelter now has three distinct business units. Its specialty papers business focuses on carbonless papers and forms, engineered products, envelopes and converting papers and book publishing. Its composite fibers business includes food and beverage packaging, nonwoven wall coverings, metallized products, technical specialties and composite laminates. Finally, Glatfelter s advanced airlaid materials business includes home and body care products such as female and adult hygiene products and specialty wipes. Each business unit is headed by a general manager responsible for all profit and loss reports, has dedicated production facilities and is supported by dedicated sales and service organizations. Of its three business units, composite fibers and advanced airlaid materials are its newest divisions but also show the most growth potential. It s been a very methodical evolution of our business, Parrini says. We ve leveraged the things we were good at and found adjacent applications in similar categories that would allow us to grow as the world changes. For example, Glatfelter has been producing tea bag papers for decades. Its success in the single-serve tea market allowed Glatfelter to leverage its knowledge and capabilities in manufacturing low-basis weight filtration material and move into the single-serve coffee market. It now manufactures filter papers for brands such as Keurig, Senseo, Mondelez and Kraft and last year completed a $50 million expansion of its Gernsbach, Germany, facility to expand its inclined wire capacity by nearly 20 ACT Specialty Chemicals For more than 15 years, ACT Specialty Chemicals has partnered with Glatfelter to help reduce the company s environmental footprint. Both ACT and Glatfelter are committed to continuous environmental improvement and the prevention of pollution in the paper making industry. ACT Specialty Chemicals is a sales and service company that serves as trusted advisor to companies such as Glatfelter to provide innovative solutions in the areas of water/waste water treatment and process chemistry applications. ACT s expertise lies in custom product development through ongoing research to ensure that customers reach their environmental and economic goals. Throughout the company s history, Glatfelter has proven to be committed to reducing the company s environmental footprint and has made every part of the paper production process - including recovering, recycling and reusing water; using elemental chlorine-free chemicals; and using ACT s extensive product line for waste water and process applications - a pro-actively smart environmental choice. FALL 2014 paperpackaginginternational.com 31
» Glatfelter GLATFELTER HAS SEEN STRONG GROWTH IN THE PERSONAL HYGIENE MARKET WITH PRODUCTS SUCH AS DIAPERS AND BABY WIPES. there are very few companies that are able to survive 150 years, let alone thrive, so that creates a huge sense of pride. - Dante Parrini percent, or approximately 10,500 short tons. The project involved converting a conventional flat wire paper machine to a state-of-the-art inclined wire paper machine used to manufacture filter papers for tea bags and single-serve coffee applications, as well as certain composite laminate products and technical specialties. Glatfelter announced the project in 2011 after seeing that shipments in its composite fibers business had increased 20 percent in 2009 and 2010, led by the strong demand for beverage filter papers. Parrini says the growth in this segment is related to the growing global middle class being seen in emerging and developing markets. While our continuous improvement initiatives have generated significant incremental capacity, the rapid growth of this business is simply outpacing our organic capacity gains, Parrini says. This expansion will not only allow us to continue to meet the growing demand of our market-leading customers with sophisticated and innovative products, but it will solidify our leading position in this rapidly growing, global category. Another growing segment for Glatfelter is the adult hygiene market. As the population ages, especially the baby boomer generation in the United States, adult incontinence brands are seeing an uptick in sales. Glatfelter already produces disposable materials used for female hygiene products and household cleaning products such as Swiffer, so it translated its industry know-how in absorbent, disposable materials into the adult hygiene market. We are not beholden to all mega trends, but when I think about the aging population and the fact that 32 paperpackaginginternational.com FALL 2014
Glatfelter «CEO DANTE PARRINI SAYS GLATFELTER LEVERAGES CURRENT SKILLS TO EFFICIENTLY MOVE INTO NEW MARKET SEGMENTS. we have the technology already to address adult hygiene needs, then it s simply a matter of taking our capabilities and know-how and adapting those technologies to produce a new but similar product, Parrini says. Emerging Energy Another market Glatfelter is closely following is the alternative energy market. The company has been working with startup Dreamweaver International to develop and manufacture lithium ion battery separators. Dreamweav- MPW Industrial Services is a vast resource for industrial cleaning, water purification, facility management, environmental management and container management services. MPW s 2500 associates support thousands of clients throughout the diverse industrial landscape of North America. MPW improves operating reliability and profitability by coupling the best trained professionals with innovative technologies. In-house engineers and fabrication technicians customize proprietary tooling and mobile operating systems to enhance safety, accommodate specialized industry requirements and meet ever-changing environmental demands. At its core, MPW is a service company with 24/7 Emergency Mobile Response and more than 42 years of operations and applications proficiency. FALL 2014 paperpackaginginternational.com 33
» Glatfelter Glatfelter Green Although Glatfelter CEO Dante Parrini says the company isn t affected by every trend, there is one that has been impossible for it and its peers to ignore, and that s the trend of going green. The demand for products made from renewable resources is increasing as people become more sensitive to the manufacturing process and consumer patterns, he says. At Glatfelter, the trend has resulted in projects such as DYNAGREEN, which is an initiative to replace conventional oil-based fibers for heat-sealable coffee and tea filter papers. There is also GEPAGREEN, which launched in 2010 and is a unique environmentally conscious metallized paper designed for wet-glue label applications such as recyclable drink products. The material uses 35 percent post-consumer waste materials and derives the remaining fibers from its sustainable production facilities. Glatfelter s U.S. facilities were among the first in the industry to attain triple chain-of-custody forestry certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. GLATFELTER MANUFACTURES SPECIALTY MOPS AND WIPES FOR WELL-KNOWN BRAND NAMES IN THE HOME CARE MARKET. er uses Glatfelter s capabilities and expertise in making advanced fiber-based engineered materials. In September, Glatfelter backed up its commitment to this emerging market by announcing an agreement to purchase the Germany-based Spezialpapierfabric Oberschmitten (SPO) for $11 million. SPO produces electrical paper products for a wide range of capacitors used in consumer and industrial products; insulation papers for cables and transformers; and materials for industrial power inverters, electromagnetic current filters and electric rail traction. SPO also produces glassline products used in cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical packaging. This acquisition will further our composite fibers business unit s strategy of capitalizing on the fast-growing electrical market by expanding our electrical papers product platform, Parrini says. In addition to serving Europe, we intend to leverage Glatfelter s growing presence in Asia to meet the needs of the high concentration of electrical customers in this region. As the demand for electronic devices continues to grow, Glatfelter is positioning itself to become a supplier of choice for electrical and electronics applications. Although these new markets are helping Glatfelter to thrive into the future, Parrini maintains there is still growth to be had in specialty printing. Rather than letting one industry go and jumping into another, Glatfelter s strategy has been to diversify into new industries while maintaining old ones, and it s paid off for the company. Parrini says most of the markets Glatfelter serves are growing by 3 to 8 percent each year, and although the 34 paperpackaginginternational.com FALL 2014
Glatfelter «printing market is in secular decline, Glatfelter has managed to grow marketshare by besting competition for the business that still exists. We ve grown our free-sheet market for the past nine consecutive years and outperformed the broader market, Parrini explains. There are very few companies that are able to survive 150 years, let alone thrive, so that creates a huge sense of pride for me and all the Glatfelter people. It s great to be in a position where we can expand on the progress of those who came before us and create profitable growth while also setting the company on a good path as we think about the future and the next 150 years. ppi FALL 2014 paperpackaginginternational.com 35