Master Lock will be part of new company spun off by Fortune Brands; NewPage to close paper mill near Stevens Point; Army orders off-road ambulances from Oshkosh Defense
Master Lock will be part of new company spun off by Fortune Brands
Deerfield, Ill.-based- Fortune Brands Inc., the owner of Oak Creek-based Master Lock, is planning to separate its three main consumer businesses.
Fortune Brands will continue as an independent, publicly traded company that will be focused completely on distilled spirits. Its holdings in the home and security business, which includes Master Lock, will be spun off into a separate company, which will be named Fortune Brands Home & Security LLC. The largest single brand in the new company will be Moen faucets.
Fortune Brands also plans to spin its golf business into a third company.
"We are taking the next logical step in the evolution of Fortune Brands, which we believe will maximize long-term value for our shareholders and create exciting opportunities within our businesses," said Bruce Carbonari, chairman and chief executive officer of Fortune Brands.
The company plans to continue Fortune Brands as an independent, publicly-traded company focused solely on its distilled spirits business. It plans to spin off the home and security business, which includes Master Lock. The company also plans to sell or spin-off its golf business.
Fortune Brands plans to complete the separation within the next few months.
Master Lock will be part of Fortune Brands Home & Security LLC, which has annual sales exceeding $3 billion. Its largest single brand is Moen faucets.
Master Lock is headquartered in Oak Creek, and it maintains a significant manufacturing and assembly facility in Milwaukee. Most of its manufacturing operations are in Nogales, Mexico.
NewPage to close paper mill near Stevens Point
NewPage Corp. will close its paper-making facility in Whiting at the end of February, putting about 360 of its employees out of work. The facility currently produces about 250,000 tons of coated paper products per year, which is used by printers of mail order catalogs, magazines and other products.
"This remains a difficult time for the paper industry, for NewPage and for many of our customers," said George Martin, NewPage president and chief executive officer. "While we have seen modest recovery in our coated markets, we continue to monitor the supply and demand balance and make the difficult choices needed to avoid oversupplying those markets. NewPage has the capacity and operational flexibility to produce both coated groundwood and coated freesheet on the same machines at other facilities."
Army orders off-road ambulances from Oshkosh Defense
The U.S. Army has ordered 250 MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle tactical ambulances from Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corp. Deliveries under this order are scheduled to begin in spring 2011. The contract award is for approximately $161 million.
“The addition of this vehicle to the U.S. services’ fleets will allow the military to provide urgent medical care in landscapes that are too rugged for other tactical ambulances,” said Ken Juergens, vice president and general manager of joint programs for Oshkosh Defense. “We invested in the development of the M-ATV ambulance in response to the military’s need for additional patient recovery and ground transport capabilities. This vehicle expands the military’s M-ATV family of vehicles currently protecting troops and supporting operations in Afghanistan.”
The vehicle can transport two litter patients in a side-by-side layout, and can be configured to carry up to four ambulatory patients. It will be equipped with military-grade ambulance equipment needed to care for patients, including oxygen concentrators, on-board power for medical equipment and IV stabilization equipment.
“The designs allows two patients to be simultaneously loaded very quickly into the M-ATV tactical ambulance, thus significantly reducing the time the medics and patients are exposed to enemy fire and other threats in combat situations,” Juergens said.
