Spartech Announces Expansion of Ramos Arizpe Plant Facility in Conjunction With New Customer Outsourcing Opportunity

ST. LOUIS, July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Spartech Corporation announced today that its Board of Directors recently approved a 101,000 square foot expansion of its Ramos Arizpe plant facility. This decision was made as a result of substantial demand growth at that plant and to service 30 million pounds of new sheet extrusion business with Whirlpool Corporation which is currently completing a new manufacturing facility located in close proximity to the Spartech site.

Spartech's President and CEO George A. Abd commented, "Our Ramos site was built to service demand from Whirlpool three years ago and is the lowest cost plant facility in Spartech's portfolio. The performance of our excellent team at the plant gives us great confidence in this investment and we are very grateful that our performance has encouraged Whirlpool to enter into an additional 5 year agreement to supply their new and existing plant sites in Mexico. Outsourcing by OEM's of non-core processes is one key element of our growth strategy which also includes new product innovation and strategic acquisitions. Ramos has been our most successful outsourcing opportunity to date and this expansion gives us the opportunity to service this new demand while creating the infrastructure for future expansion."

The building expansion and capacity increase will require a capital investment of approximately $5.2 million and is expected to be complete by March of 2007. This expansion will increase the size of the Ramos plant to 238,000 square feet.

Spartech Corporation is a leading producer of engineered thermoplastic sheet materials, polymeric compounds and concentrates, and engineered product solutions. The Company has facilities located throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe, with annual sales of approximately $1.4 billion.