Trelleborg making big organizational changes

Image Credit: Trelleborg

Sweden-based polymer technology developer Trelleborg A.B. has announced plans to reorganize its organization in order to focus on selected segments and highlight areas where the company believes improvement in profitability must occur.

In the new organization, Trelleborg will consist of three business areas, compared with five today. In addition, a reporting segment is being created, called “Businesses under development”. “A number of operations will be transferred to [this] new reporting segment…which will be recognized separately from the business area structure,” Trelleborg said in a Dec. 4 statement.

The following business areas will be included in the new organization:

• Trelleborg Industrial Solutions, specializing in polymer-based niche applications and infrastructure projects;
• Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, specializing in polymer-based sealing solutions; and
• Trelleborg Wheel Systems, specializing in tires for off-highway vehicles

Additionally, Trelleborg Coated Systems and Trelleborg Offshore & Construction will be discontinued as business areas. Dario Porta, business area president of Trelleborg Coated Systems, will leave Trelleborg’s Group management at year-end and become business unit president of the printing blankets operations.

In the future, Trelleborg Industrial Solutions will consist of its current operations, the engineered coated fabrics operations of Trelleborg Coated Systems and the operations of marine solutions and infrastructure projects of Trelleborg Offshore & Construction. “In conjunction with the changes, certain operations will be transferred from Trelleborg Industrial Solutions to Businesses under development,” the statement said.

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions will be unaffected by the organizational changes, and Trelleborg Wheel Systems will only be “marginally affected” by the transfer of its bicycle tire operations to Businesses under development.

The new reporting segment Businesses under development will consist of:

• the printing blankets operations of Trelleborg Coated Systems;
• the oil & gas operations of Trelleborg Offshore & Construction;
• the Swedish and Estonian operations for specialty moulded components of Trelleborg Industrial Solutions; and
• the Czech operations for specialty molded components and technical rubber products of Trelleborg Industrial Solutions as well as the bicycle tire operations of Trelleborg Wheel Systems

“We are now putting a stronger focus on our strategically well-positioned businesses,” Trelleborg president and CEO Peter Nilsson said in the statement. “This will involve continued development and investments in organic growth and various types of bolt-on acquisitions, which in different ways can complement and strengthen our positions in selected segments. In parallel, we will be conducting an intensive strategic review of the operations that will be included in Businesses under development. I want to be clear that we are demanding that profitability should be significantly improved within a 12–24 month period in order for these operations to be included in Group. As the improvement work is in progress, we will continuously evaluate various structural alternatives.”