A. Schulman Inc. Further Realigns Its North American Engineered Plastics Business

A. Schulman Inc. announced the latest in its actions to realign its North American Engineered Plastics business to meet the requirements of the high-value-added compounding market. The Company plans to close its plant in Nashville, Tennessee, and consolidate manufacturing to its remaining North American manufacturing sites. As a result of the realignment, four production lines at the Nashville facility will be shut down and approximately 60 jobs will be eliminated, including jobs from the Nashville facility and support staff functions. Approximately 24 million pounds of engineered plastics production will be moved from Nashville to production lines in the Company's Akron and Bellevue, Ohio, facilities. The Akron plant's capabilities will be enhanced to produce highly technical and higher-value specialty compounds for the North American market in a flexible and lean manufacturing facility to better serve customers' needs. As part of this effort, the Company anticipates investing approximately $7 million to create technical compounding capabilities in the Akron facility. This move will add approximately 20 jobs in the Akron facility. The Nashville facility is expected to close no later than February 29, 2012, the end of the Company's fiscal 2012 second quarter. Construction in Akron is expected to begin next month, with operations to commence by early March 2012. These items are expected to result in total charges of approximately $8 million to $10 million.