Appleton restructures into three divisions

Appleton has announced a restructuring plan for its business segments aimed at improving the company’s market focus, streamlining its organizational structure, reducing costs, and positioning the company to pursue international growth opportunities.
The company will be organized into three divisions: technical papers, flexible packaging and international. The new organizational structure will result in the elimination of approximately 40 jobs, primarily at the company’s Appleton, Wisconsin, headquarters. The company expects that this restructuring combined with the benefits of other cost reduction efforts already in place to result in savings of $8 to $10 million in 2006.
“Our restructuring is part of an ongoing effort to align our business priorities and to increase value for our customers and shareholders,” said Mark Richards, Appleton’s chief executive officer. “To achieve those goals, we created a new division structure and aligned our technology resources to increase market focus and operating efficiencies and accelerate our product development and growth efforts.”