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September 15, 2009

Wellman Palmetto Plant Purchased by Darlington Developments, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Process Plants

Darlington, S.C. – September 15, 2009 - Darlington Developments, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of International Process Plants (IPP), announced today that they have purchased the former Wellman Palmetto Plant located at 1000 East McIver Road, Darlington, SC 29532. The purchase includes a 1.1 million square foot building, 760 acres of land and all existing machinery and equipment.  Darlington Development plans to remarket the plant to one or more users.  Existing production units of 250,000 TPY (tons per year) of PET bottle grade resin, 250,000 TPY of polyester staple fiber and 120,000 TPY of amorphous PET, are available to restart in whole or in part, to be operated in place and restarted or to be moved elsewhere. If the plants are moved to another location, we will use the infrastructure to repopulate the site with other industries. 

IPP's business model is to purchase complete plants, with the land, buildings and equipment, for which manufacturers no longer have a need that are being closed globally. In some cases IPP will also take on the environmental remediation of the site. IPP and it’s subsidiaries utilize their globally integrated corporate infrastructure within the US, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Romania, India, Portugal, Czech Republic, Korea and Russia to identify customers to repopulate a site by making the same product. When that is not feasible, IPP can sell the processes elsewhere in the world and market a site’s remaining assets in the global marketplace in order to repopulate the site.

“Magnified by the current economic conditions, we meet a niche that allows a company interested in expanding capacity an opportunity to do so at a fraction of the cost of building a new facility,” said Stan Sackowitiz, vice president of business development of International Process Plants.  “With approximately 15 other complete plants that we own for resale and an inventory of over 25,000 pieces of process equipment at our disposal, we can provide a customer a turnkey operation.”

 Some of the existing assets of the Wellman Palmetto Plant include large onsite well water production, waste water treatment plant, 160-car rail yard, large boiler capacity for steam production and hot oil production, 10 inch diameter natural gas service and heavy electrical infrastructure.

 “First and foremost, County Council has remained focused on working with former Wellman employees impacted by the plant closure,” said Wesley Blackwell, chairman of Darlington County Council.  “We are now focused on bringing new investment and jobs back into this former pillar of our community.”

“We are pleased that we can work with Darlington Development to move forward to proactively remarket the former Wellman Palmetto Plant now that it has been sold,” said Jim Ramsey, chairman of Darlington County Economic Development Partnership.  “In addition to more than one million square feet under roof, I am excited about the hundreds of undeveloped acres that can be marketed separately for business development.”

About International Process Plants:

IPP is headquartered in Hamilton, New Jersey, with international offices, infrastructure and affiliates in China, Czech Republic, England, Germany, India, Poland, Romania, Korea, Russia, Italy and France. With over 30 years of experience, IPP is dedicated to providing the worldwide processing industries with quality complete plants and equipment at competitive prices.  IPP is the world’s largest plant and equipment trader.  More information is available at www.ippe.com.

About the Darlington County Economic Development Partnership:

The public/private partnership was established by Darlington County Council and is supported by Darlington County, City of Hartsville and members of Darlington County Progress, Inc.  The Partnership also works with regional, state and federal agencies in securing available grants and other financial assistance for business and industrial growth. More information is available at www.dcedp.biz.

For more information, contact Robert Long at (843) 413-3210.