Consumer Products
The company became well known for its brand of aluminum foil,Reynolds Wrap. Reynolds Wrap was first made by a company called Reynolds Packaging, a business created to supply aluminum foil for packaging tobacco. When Alcoa purchased Reynolds, it shed some non-metals packaging and printing businesses but preserved the Reynolds consumer brand, as well as the Reynolds Kitchens, which are still across the street from the former Reynolds headquarters building. Alcoa's Reynolds division was a leader in household baking and cooking products; a sister product to Reynolds Wrap is Cut-Rite Wax paper. On January 31, 2008 the Reynolds Consumer business was sold to Graeme Hart and is now operated as part of Reynolds Packaging Group. In an initiative led by Paul D. Thomas, Reynolds Packaging Group CEO and a former Alcoa executive, on September 21, 2008, Reynolds announced that one of the foil plants that produces Reynolds Wrap, located in downtown Richmond Virginia, will be closed and foil operations moved to Louisville KY, which is where Reynolds Wrap was originally started. A small portion of the spooling operation from the Richmond Foil plant has also been moved to the Reynolds Plant in Grove City, PA in early 2010. Hart, who has never visited Richmond since the purchase, has also subsequently closed 5 other plants within Reynolds in efforts to increase profit margins and eliminate plants that under performed. As a reflection of the recessionary times as with most companies, salaries were frozen and salaried employees have not been given any pay raises, however union employees with fixed compensation contracts were given incentive compensation. As of early 2010 all pay has been unfrozen and salaried employees have since received pay adjustments.
The cost-cutting efforts in 2008 and 2009 culminated in issuance of more debt on behalf of Reynolds in October 2009 on the Irish Stock Exchange. This issuance allowed Hart to not only recoup his initial investment in Reynolds but also get substantial returns on his investment. Hart has since been named the 110th richest person by Fortune magazine.
Read more about this topic: Reynolds Group Holdings
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