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Item 1. BUSINESS
(In millions of dollars, except as otherwise noted)
General
Berry Plastics Group, Inc. (“Berry” or the “Company”) is a leading provider of value-added plastic consumer packaging and engineered materials with a track record of delivering high-quality customized solutions to our customers. Our products utilize our proprietary research and development platform, which includes a continually evolving library of Berry-owned molds, patents, manufacturing techniques and technologies. We sell our solutions predominantly into consumer-oriented end-markets, such as food and beverage, healthcare, and personal care. We believe our customers look to us for solutions that have high consumer impact in terms of form, function, and branding. Representative examples of our products include thermoform drink cups, thin-wall containers, blow-molded bottles, specialty closures, prescription vials, specialty plastic films, tapes products, and corrosion protection materials.
We believe that we have created one of the largest product libraries in our industry, allowing us to be a comprehensive solution provider to our customers. We have more than 13,000 customers, which consist of a diverse mix of leading national, mid-sized regional and local specialty businesses. The size and scope of our customer network allows us to introduce new products we develop or acquire to a vast audience that is familiar with, and we believe partial to, our brand. In fiscal 2012, no single customer represented more than 3% of net sales and our top ten customers represented less than 17% of net sales. We believe our manufacturing processes and our ability to leverage our scale to reduce expenses on items, such as raw materials, position us as a low-cost manufacturer relative to our competitors. For example, we believe based on management estimates that we are one of the largest global purchasers of plastic resins, at more than 2.5 billion pounds per year, which gives us scaled purchasing savings.
We organize our business into four operating divisions: Rigid Open Top, Rigid Closed Top, (which together make up our Rigid Packaging business), Engineered Materials, and Flexible Packaging. Additional financial information about our business segments is provided in “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the “Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements,” which are included elsewhere in this Form 10-K.
Acquisitions
Rexam Specialty and Beverage Closures
In September 2011, we acquired 100% of the capital stock of Rexam SBC. The aggregate purchase price was $351 ($340, net of cash acquired). Rexam SBC’s primary products include plastic closures, fitments and dispensing closure systems, and jars. The business is operated in our Rigid Packaging business. To finance the purchase, we used cash on hand and existing credit facilities. The Rexam SBC acquisition has been accounted for under the purchase method of accounting, and accordingly, the purchase price has been allocated to the identifiable assets and liabilities based on estimated fair values at the acquisition date.
STOPAQ®
In June 2012, the Company acquired 100% of the shares of Frans Nooren Beheer B.V. and its operating companies (“Stopaq”) for a purchase price of $65 ($62, net of cash acquired). Stopaq is the inventor and manufacturer of patented visco-elastic technologies for use in corrosion prevention, sealing and insulation applications ranging from pipelines to subsea piles to rail and cable joints. The newly added business is operated in our Engineered Materials segment. To finance the purchase, the Company used cash on hand and existing credit facilities. The Stopaq acquisition has been accounted for under the purchase method of accounting, and accordingly, the preliminary purchase price has been allocated to the identifiable assets and liabilities based on estimated fair values at the acquisition date.
Recent Developments
In October 2012, we completed our initial public offering selling 29,411,764 shares of common stock at $16.00 per share. We used proceeds of our initial public offering, net of underwriting fees, of $444 and cash on hand to repurchase all $455 of 11% Senior Subordinated Notes due September 15, 2016. In connection with the initial public offering, we entered into an income tax receivable agreement that provides for the payment by us to our pre-initial public offering stockholders, option holders and holders of our stock appreciation rights of 85% of the amount of cash savings, if any, in U.S. federal, foreign, state and local income tax that we actually realize (or are deemed to realize in the case of a change of control) as a result of the utilization of our and our subsidiaries’ net operating losses attributable to periods prior to the initial public offering. We expect to pay between $300 and $350 in cash related to this agreement, based on our current taxable income estimates.
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Product Overview
Rigid Packaging
Our Rigid Packaging business primarily consists of containers, foodservice items, housewares, closures, overcaps, bottles, prescription vials, and tubes. The largest end uses for our packages are consumer-oriented end markets such as food and beverage, retail mass marketers, healthcare, personal care and household chemical. Many of our products are manufactured from proprietary molds that we develop and own, which we believe would result in significant costs to our customers to switch to a different supplier. In addition to a complete product line, we have sophisticated decorating capabilities and in-house graphic arts and tooling departments, which allow us to integrate ourselves into, and, we believe, add significant value to, our customers’ packaging design processes. Our primary competitors include Airlite, Letica, Polytainers, Silgan, Aptar Group, and Reynolds. These competitors individually only compete on certain of our products, whereas we offer the entire selection of rigid products described below.
Containers. We manufacture a collection of nationally branded container products and also seek to develop customized container products for niche applications by leveraging of our state-of-the-art design, decoration and graphic arts capabilities. We believe this mix allows us to both achieve significant economies of scale, while also maintaining an attractive portfolio of specialty products. Our container capacities range from four ounces to five gallons and are offered in various styles with accompanying lids, bails and handles, some of which we produce, as well as a wide array of decorating options. We have long-standing supply relationships with many of the nation’s leading food and consumer products companies, including Dannon, Dean Foods, Conagra, Kraft, Kroger, and Unilever.
Foodservice. We believe that we are one of the largest providers of large size thermoformed polypropylene (“PP”) and injection-molded plastic drink cups in the United States. We believe we are the leading producer of 30 ounce or larger thermoformed PP drink cups and offer a product line with sizes ranging from 12 to 52 ounces. Our thermoform process uses PP instead of more expensive polystyrene (“PS”) or polyethylene terephthalate (“PET”) in producing deep draw drink cups to generate a cup with a competitive cost advantage versus thermoformed PS or PET drink cups. Additionally, we produce injection-molded plastic cups that range in size from 12 to 64 ounces. Primary markets for our plastic drink cups are quick service and family dining restaurants, convenience stores, stadiums and retail stores. Many of our cups are decorated, often as promotional items, and we believe we have a reputation in the industry for innovative, state-of-the-art graphics. Selected drink cup customers and end users include Hardee’s, McDonald’s, Quik Trip, Starbucks, Subway, Wendy’s, and Yum! Brands.
Housewares. Our participation in the housewares market is focused on producing semi-disposable plastic home and party and plastic garden products. Examples of our products include plates, bowls, pitchers, tumblers and outdoor flowerpots. We sell virtually all of our products in this market through major national retail marketers and national chain stores, such as Walmart. PackerWare is our recognized brand name in these markets and PackerWare branded products are often co-branded by our customers. Our strategy in this market has been to provide high value to consumers at a relatively modest price, consistent with the key price points of the retail marketers. We believe outstanding service and the ability to deliver products with timely combination of color and design further enhance our position in this market.
Closures and Overcaps. We believe we are a leading producer of closures and overcaps across several of our product lines, including continuous-thread and child-resistant closures, as well as aerosol overcaps. We currently sell our closures into numerous end markets, including vitamin/nutritional, chemical, healthcare, food/beverage, specialty and personal care. In addition to traditional closures, we are a provider of a wide selection of custom closure solutions including fitments and plugs for medical applications, cups and spouts for liquid laundry detergent, and dropper bulb assemblies for medical and personal care applications. Further, we believe that we are the leading domestic producer of injection-molded aerosol overcaps. Our aerosol overcaps are used in a wide variety of consumer goods including spray paints, household and personal care products, insecticides and numerous other commercial and consumer products. We believe our technical expertise and manufacturing capabilities provide us a low-cost position that has allowed us to become a leading provider of high-quality closures and overcaps to a diverse set of leading companies. We believe our manufacturing advantage is driven by our position on the forefront of various technologies, including the latest in single- and bi-injection processes, precise reproduction of colors, automation and vision technology, and proprietary packing technology that minimizes freight cost and warehouse space. A majority of our overcaps and closures are manufactured from proprietary molds, which we design, develop, and own. In addition to these molds, we utilize state-of-the art lining, assembly, and decorating equipment to enhance the value and performance of our products in the market. Our closure and aerosol overcap customers include McCormick, Bayer, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Shell Oil, Johnson and Johnson, Pepsico, Wyeth, Kraft, Sherwin-Williams, and S.C. Johnson.
Bottles and Prescription Containers. Our bottle and prescription container businesses target markets similar to our closure business. We believe, based on management estimates, that we are the leading supplier of spice containers in the United States and have a leadership position in various food and beverage, vitamin and nutritional markets, as well as selling bottles
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into prescription and pharmaceutical applications. Additionally, we believe we are a leading supplier in the prescription container market, supplying a complete line of amber containers with both one-piece and two-piece child-resistant closures. We offer an extensive line of stock polyethylene (“PE”) and PET bottles for the vitamin and nutritional markets. Our design capabilities, along with internal engineering strength give us the ability to compete on customized designs to provide desired differentiation from traditional packages. We also offer our customers decorated bottles with hot stamping, silk screening and labeling. We sell these products to personal care, pharmaceutical, food and consumer product customers, including McCormick, Pepsico, Carriage House, Perrigo, CVS, NBTY, Target Stores, John Paul Mitchell, and Novartis.
Tubes. We believe that we are one of the largest suppliers of extruded plastic squeeze tubes in the United States. We offer a complete line of tubes in a wide variety of sizes. We have also introduced laminate tubes to complement our extruded tube business. Our focus and investments are made to ensure that we are able to meet the increasing trend towards large diameter tubes with high-end decoration. We have several proprietary designs in this market that combine tube and closure that we believe are viewed as very innovative both in appearance and functionality, as well as from a sustainability standpoint. The majority of our tubes are sold in the personal care market, focusing on products like facial/cold creams, shampoos, conditioners, bath/shower gels, lotions, sun care, hair gels, and anti-aging creams. We also sell our tubes into the pharmaceutical and household chemical markets. We believe that our ability to provide creative package designs, combined with a complementary line of closures, makes us a preferred supplier for many customers in our target markets including Kao Brands, L’Oreal, Avon, and Procter & Gamble.