Alcoa announces new strategic alignment for Alcoa Packaging and Consumer Group

The move aims to separate businesses units from manufacturing, enabling the businesses to focus on customers, new products and market development, while the manufacturing organization drives for operational excellence.

28/10/05 Alcoa has announced a new strategic alignment for its Alcoa Packaging and Consumer group that focuses its businesses on accelerating growth through new product innovation, operational excellence, enhanced customer connections and leveraged shared services.

The formation of a new, world-class innovation, research and development group, which will collaborate with customers and Alcoa businesses to develop new products, is a key component in the realignment to energize growth initiatives. Complementing this is a strategic move to separate businesses units from manufacturing, enabling the businesses to focus on customers, new products and market development, while the manufacturing organization drives for operational excellence.

Rounding out the new design is a group shared services approach to supply chain and logistics that will leverage synergies across the business units, and enhance customer connections. In addition, centers of excellence will be established in other transactional and business support systems to capture efficiencies and better align the organization to meet customer needs.

A re-aligned, channel-driven business unit structure includes:

- A newly created Alcoa Packaging business, which will focus on total packaging solutions in growing market segments such as medical, pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, electronics and film products headed by Bimal Kalvani.

- A refocused Reynolds Food Packaging business, which will combine the strengths of Alcoa's thermoforming sheet and food packaging businesses to better serve the foodservice industry, including foodservice distributors, processors, agriculture, bakeries and restaurants headed by Rebecca Liebert.

- Alcoa Consumer Products, which will continue to focus on private label and branded offerings, such as Reynolds Wrap(R), in the wraps and bags market with its retail channels including grocery, club, mass, drug and dollar stores.

- Alcoa Closure Systems International (CSI), which will continue to operate in its current beverage markets while pursuing adjacent markets with an integrated commercial and manufacturing structure.

Searches are underway for leaders of Alcoa Consumer Products and Alcoa CSI, and announcements will be forthcoming.