Displaying items by tag: Xerium Technologies, Inc

Harold Bevis, Xerium CEO and President, has announced the creation of the new position of Executive Vice President of Global Human Resources and the filling of that position with the hiring of Mike Bly as the company’s new global leader of all human resources. Mr. Bly will be responsible for all of Xerium’s human resources – wage plans, benefit plans, insurance, union contracts, incentive plans, personal goals and objectives, human resource management systems, and career planning.

Harold Bevis said “Xerium has two objectives with this move. First, we want to instill stronger pay-for-performance regimens across all people and processes. Xerium has begun a multi-year journey to create an enterprise that sets and meets its commitments to shareholders, customers and employees. The markets that Xerium serves have fundamentally changed in the last few years and we must change our human resource approaches in order to compete and win in this environment.”

“Second, we need to establish more contemporary regimens within the human resource function itself. Many of our current habits are outdated and need to be brought up to contemporary standards. We have a big opportunity to leverage our scale better, simplify our network of activities and organize and group common areas of work. This organizational move will enable that to happen naturally. All human resource personnel will report to Mike with dotted line reporting to the regional Presidents.”

Mike Bly said, “I am excited to join Xerium at this time in its history and look forward to creating value for our employees, customers and investors. Simply stated, my job is to increase the output of our human resources and align our incentive structures around a pay-for-performance philosophy. That always involves consistent cost avoidance and reduction, metric and process improvement, simplification and automation. Cultural change and advancement is a key sustainable objective. I truly enjoy doing this, am experienced and have done it with Harold Bevis before. I understand his sense of urgency and his performance expectations. We are on the same page. I look forward to leading Xerium’s human resource function and resetting our agenda. It will be exciting and fun.”

Mike Bly Background Highlights

• 28 years of experience leading human resource and manufacturing functions, quality, supply chain, lean manufacturing, materials optimization and substitution, standardized manufacturing systems, per unit cost reduction, customer service, and M&A operational integrations.
• Formerly the Vice President of Human Resources for Mr. Bevis at Pliant Corporation. During that time, Pliant renegotiated all of its union contracts; achieved top-tier wage and benefit benchmarks; consolidated multiple plants and expanded multiple plants.
• Most recently, Vice President of Human Resources at Berry Plastics (acquired Pliant Corporation in December 2009) where he had responsibility for the Flexible Packaging Division’s human resource function.
• BS in Business Administration and is currently pursuing his MBA from Kaplan University.
• Mike achieved his Professional Human Resource (PHR) and Senior Professional Human Resource Certifications (SPHR) from the Human Resource Certification Institute.
• Married with 3 children.  

  Source: Xerium

Xerium Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:XRM), a leading global manufacturer of specially engineered textiles and roll covers used in the production of paper, paperboard, building products, non-wovens and specific industrial processes, announced that the results of its operations for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2012.

Net sales have been stable in 2012, averaging approximately $134.7 million per quarter, and within a range of +/- 2%. Our backlog, defined as orders expected to ship within one year, suggests that this trend will continue and currently stands at $174.0 million as of December 31, 2012. Compared to the third quarter of 2012, net sales were essentially the same at a 0.3% decline, or a 1.4% decline on a constant currency basis. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, net sales decreased 7.9%, or 6.2% on a constant currency basis, to $133.8 millionfrom $145.2 million. Year over year, net sales decreased 8.2%, or 4.8% on a constant currency basis, to $538.7 million from $587.0 million. See "Segment Information" and "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.

Gross profit has been fairly stable in 2012, averaging approximately $48.4 million per quarter and within a range of +/- 3%. The 4.5% decline from $49.2 million in the third quarter of 2012 to $47.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2012 was primarily as a result of special charges for asset impairments, lower constant currency sales volume and reduced production absorption.

Despite stable sales, Adjusted EBITDA declined 15.6% in the fourth quarter of 2012 to $20.6 million from $24.4 million in the third quarter of 2012. This decline was primarily a result of special charges of $1.5 million for items including payroll tax exposures, accounts receivables and inventory and the third quarter reversal of $0.5 million management incentive costs that did not occur in the fourth quarter of 2012. In addition to these unusual items, Adjusted EBITDA declined $1.5 million, primarily due to reduced gross profit on lower constant currency sales and lower production absorption. See "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.

Total debt is trending down as a result of explicit pay down actions and stands at $445.0 million at December 31, 2012. During the fourth quarter of 2012, the Company paid down $5.1 million of debt, including the repurchase of $3.6 million of its Notes in December of 2012. On a full year basis, debt was paid down $25.7 million. Net debt, as defined as total debt less cash balances, was $410.2 million at December 31, 2012.

Commenting on the quarter, Harold Bevis, Xerium's President and Chief Executive Officer stated, "The Company is fully underway with its multi-year commitment to increasing sales and EBITDA. The Company is right-sizing its cost structure around its core business. It is also repositioning its production capacity to be lower cost and better serve its customers. The Company has taken specific cost reduction actions to increase 2013 Adjusted EBITDA including the closure of four manufacturing operations and reduction of headcount. We have targeted savings net of reinstated incentive compensation of approximately $12 million in 2013 with a progressive quarterly build up of cost out actions and a carryover into 2014. Specifically, the Company took action against approximately $1.5 million of cost, net of incentive compensation reinstatement, in the first quarter of 2013, compared to the fourth quarter of 2012. The Company is funding and gating its cost reduction activities with internal cash flow. The Company has also kicked off and/or accelerated several new sales growth and new product programs in order to re-establish top-line growth opportunities. These strategic moves will be kept private by Company management for the time being, but these actions are expected to open up another ~$200 million aperture into our served markets."

FOURTH QUARTER FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Source: Xerium Technologies, Inc.

Xerium Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:XRM) a leading global manufacturer of specially engineered textiles and roll covers used in the production of paper, paperboard, building products, nonwovens, and specific industrial processes, has announced full commercial availability of SMART®5.0 Technology. SMART 5.0 is another significant advancement in the total cost management of paper machines.Xerium is the global market share leader in intelligent nip technology.

SMART 5.0 provides papermakers with unprecedented real-time nip analysis including : 1) three-dimensional measurement and display of machine direction nip width, 2) advanced capability for shoe press nips, and, 3) enhanced connectivity software to connect directly to mill DCS and PI machine control systems.

Roll covers are critical to the quality and cost of paper as it is produced. Xerium introduced SMART roll cover products in 2008 as the industry's first real-time electronic roll cover. Since then the company has implemented the product line globally and includes it as an available value-add feature of all roll cover types – rubber, polyurethane and composite. With over two hundred worldwide references, the company believes that it offers the most advanced and reliable intelligent nip roll cover products on more applications than all other competitors combined. SMART roll covers are a proven tool for optimizing total cost of production and quality of the papermaker’s product.

Harold Bevis, Xerium’s President and CEO said, "SMART 5.0 is a significant next step in real-time electronic roll covers. The nip is modeled and displayed graphically in 3D so that machine operators can dial in their machines to get maximum results. The data feeds are straight-forward to integrate into overall machine controls. We are well underway with our machine integration approaches. This is a productivity advancement worth looking into."

Source: Xerium Technologies, Inc