Cookson Group (1/11 John Adam Street, GB-London WC2N 6HJ; www.cookson.co.uk) has completed its exit from the plastics market in a restructuring programme first started four years ago. In four separate transactions its moulding operations have been sold for a total sum of USD 54m, of which USD 51m was paid in cash. The one UK business goes to DS Smith Plastics. The other operations, all in North America, have been purchased by unnamed US-based organisations. In the 12 months to 30 September 2001, the businesses had sales of GBP 93m and an operating profit of GBP 2m.

Most recently Cookson´s plastics interests have been focused primarily on materials handling, swimming pool panels and custom moulding. The UK operation, Cookson Plastic Mouldings (Europe) Ltd (Hamberts Road, South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford, GB-Essex CM3 5UE) makes injection moulded, structural foam pallets under the Hyrack and Duro Pallet brandings. In the US the activities have traded as Cookson Plastic Mouldings Inc. One business, based in Atlanta, Georgia, also makes pallets. Another, in Mora, Minnesota, is a custom moulding operation. The third, producing panels for in-ground swimming pools, has its main plant in Albany, New York, with a subsidiary facility in Ontario, Canada.

DS Smith Plastics (Brownsover Road, GB-Rugby CV21 1HL; www.dssmith-plastics.com) has purchased all the assets of the low pressure, structural foam moulding business for the production of pallets from Cookson Plastic Mouldings (Europe), including the plant, processing machinery, moulds and designs. The purchase price has not been disclosed. The business complements the twin sheet, thermoformed pallet activity of Kaysersberg Plastics SA (F-68240 Kaysersberg; www.kpsa.com), the French subsidiary of DS Smith Plastics, and will also now trade as Kaysersberg Plastics. Heavy duty pallets is part of Smith´s returnable transit packaging operation serving the beverage, rigid container and automotive markets. Other parts of the business include beverage crates, bulk and unit load containers, and boxes and materials handling systems.

“Cookson´s products ideally complement the core range of products and services offered by DS Smith Plastics,” says business development director, Peter Maple. “This acquisition enables us to offer a broader range of material handling solutions and enhanced levels of service to the existing customers of both businesses.”

DS Smith Plastics employs some 1,300 people worldwide and has sales of more than GBP 162m. It is part of DS Smith plc (GB-Rugby CV21 1HL; www.davidssmith.com), an international packaging group with a turnover in excess of GBP 1,400m.

Cookson, which issued four profit warnings during 2001, will use the proceeds from the sale of the moulding activities to reduce debts estimated at GBP 800m. Electronics and ceramics are now its core businesses.