Tekni-Plex, Inc. to Cease Operations at Burlington, NJ Resin Production Plant

SOMERVILLE, N.J., March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Tekni-Plex, Inc. announced today that, in conjunction with its ongoing efforts to improve business performance across the organization, the Company will cease operations at its specialty resins facility in Burlington, New Jersey. The plant is operated by Burlington Resins, Inc., a Tekni-Plex subsidiary.

The Burlington facility produces specialty resins that are used in a variety of product applications, particularly in the troubled housing and automotive sectors. Burlington Resins has not been profitable in recent years. The facility's 53 employees are being notified that their positions at the plant will likely be eliminated by early May 2009.

Paul Young, Chief Executive Officer of Tekni-Plex, said, "The Burlington business has struggled with significantly higher costs for raw materials and energy. We explored a number of other alternatives that would have allowed us keep the business operational, such as joint ventures or a sale, but we concluded that none of these are feasible at this time. We appreciate the hard work and dedication demonstrated by the employees in Burlington and regret that market conditions have made it necessary to cease operations at this location."

Tekni-Plex said that its other businesses, including the compounds business, are functioning as usual and are unaffected by the Burlington closure. In fact, Tekni-Plex has recently started new production lines in Belfast, UK and Suzhou, China to expand its medical compounds business.

About Tekni-Plex, Inc.

Tekni-Plex is a global, diversified manufacturer of packaging, packaging products and materials, as well as tubing products. The Company primarily serves the food, healthcare and consumer markets. It has built leadership positions in its core markets, and focuses on vertically integrated production of highly specialized products. Tekni-Plex has operations in the United States, Belgium, Italy, Belfast, China and Argentina.

The Company's operations are aligned under two business segments: Packaging and Tubing Products. Representative product lines in the Packaging segment include foam egg cartons; pharmaceutical blister films; poultry and meat processor trays; closure liners; aerosol and pump packaging components; and foam plates. Representative product lines in the Tubing Products segment include garden and irrigation hose; medical tubing; and aeration hose. The Company also manufactures other products that do not fit in either of these segments, including vinyl compounds.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and certain oral statements made from time to time by representatives of Tekni-Plex, Inc. (which we refer to as "Tekni-Plex," the "Company", "we", "us" or similar words) may include "forward-looking" statements. The words "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "will," and similar expressions identify statements that are forward-looking. All statements addressing the impact of the closing of our Burlington facility on us as well as events or developments that Tekni-Plex expects or anticipates will occur in the future, are forward-looking statements and will be based on management's then-current views and assumptions regarding future events and operating performance, and are applicable only as of the dates of such statements.

Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward looking statements. Factors that would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: price volatility and availability of raw materials and the Company's ability to correspondingly increase its prices, competitive factors, risks related to foreign investments and operations, seasonality, changes in environmental and safety laws and regulations and other risks as discussed from time to time in the Company's other public statements and reports. Although we do not make forward-looking statements unless we believe we have a reasonable basis for doing so, we cannot guarantee their accuracy. Investors should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date hereof and we undertake no obligation to update or revise these statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof.

    Contact:

    Media Inquiries Only:

    Kekst and Company
    Michael Freitag or Mark Semer
    (212) 521-4800

SOURCE Tekni-Plex, Inc.