ICI Australia to Refocus Films Business for Growth

18th July, 1997

ICI Australia announced today that it had reached agreement for the sale of its Visqueen polyethylene plastic film business based at Chester Hill, New South Wales to AEP Industries (Australia) Pty Ltd. Completion of the sale and transfer of the business is expected to take place by the end of July 1997.

ICI Australia Films division general manager Mr Tony Fincham said, "We have taken the strategic decision to sell this particular plastic film business to enable us to focus on expansion of our Cast polyethylene film business based in Victoria and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

"We believe the Cast film business, which supplies a range of personal care films to the disposable diaper and feminine hygiene markets, offers good potential for profitable growth. By refocusing our resources and expertise on developing the Cast film business we will be in an excellent position to capitalise on that growth, particularly given our access to Asian customers," he said.

ICI Australia managing director Mr Philip Weickhardt said, "This is a further step in the refocusing and rationalisation of our business which has been occurring for some time. The company will continue to take the best strategic decisions overall in terms of selling, acquiring and growing existing businesses."

The sale, for an undisclosed sum, covers all plant and equipment of the blown film Visqueen business operating at the ICI Films site at Chester Hill. All current Visqueen employees will transfer with the business to AEP.

Visqueen manufactures a range of industrial polyethylene films such as pallet wrap and shrink wrap. Its major customers are in the brewery, soft drink and glass manufacturing industries, where ICI is the major supplier of industrial wrapping film to such industries. Total sales are approximately $25M.

AEP Industries (Australia) is a division of AEP Industries Inc, based in New Jersey USA. AEP is a major manufacturer in the Australian flexible packaging film market, supplying products including "Resinite" PVC film, a range of polyethylene printed films and bags, and laminated and converted products to the frozen food, retail confectionery and snack food markets. AEP has three manufacturing facilities in Australia, two located in Sydney and one in Melbourne.