The restructuring is a direct consequence of Alcan's acquisition of the French aluminium rolled products company Pechiney.
Under EU competition laws, the acquisition would have meant Alcan having to sell other rolled products operations and could have seen Alcan selling its recycling plant to the highest bidder. That option has been avoided, however, and instead Alcan has created Novelis as an entirely separate and independent aluminium rolled products company. Alcan shareholders will receive shares in Novelis.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, a spokesperson for Alcan Aluminium Can Recycling said that despite the change of corporate identity, it is “business as usual” for all those involved in Alcan's recycling chain.
Diana Caldwell, marketing and communications manager, said: “As far as we are concerned it will be a new name, new corporate identity, new colours but the people will be staying the same and it will be business as usual.”
Alcan works through eight regional process centres across the UK, supplying its can reprocessing facility in Warrington, Cheshire, which opened in 1989. The largest aluminium can recycling plant in Europe, the plant produces ingots for the beverage can manufacturing industry and the company believe it has the potential capacity to recycle every aluminium drink can sold in the UK.
As Novelis, the company would continue with its ongoing drive to improve the quality of supplied cans and in its work developing collection infrastructure in the UK, Ms Caldwell said, adding that the reprocessor is also one of the organisations behind the forthcoming national recycling week in the UK, “The Big Recycle”.
Change
Worldwide, the Alcan business employs 88,000 people operating in 63 countries. About 13,000 of these will now work under the mantle of the new company Novelis in 38 operating facilities in 12 countries.
Novelis will remain based in Canada, and formal ties to the Alcan company are to be cut on January 1, 2005. The new company will be the “world's largest aluminium rolled products company” and “the world's largest recycler of aluminium beverage cans”, Alcan said, with annual revenues expected to be just over six billion dollars.
Brian Sturgell, who will become the Novelis chief executive in January, said: “First and foremost, our name will represent our new approach to the business, the opportunity for change, and our emphasis on speed-to-market and precise performance.
“We will have a keener focus on delivering better solutions, with speed and agility to add increased value to our rolled products customers.”
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