DuPont to consolidate plastics businesses into one unit

DuPont Co. (Wilmington, DE) is consolidating two of its plastic-related businesses into one unit as part of its efforts to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The combined DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers and DuPont Performance Polymers businesses—which will comprise the DuPont Performance Materials reporting segment—will be led by Patrick E. Lindner, currently president of DuPont Performance Polymers.

Ed Breen, interim CEO.

"By bringing these business units together under common management structures, we are creating businesses of more significant scale to better serve our customers with more powerful science capabilities and stronger applications development," said DuPont interim CEO Ed Breen. "At the same time this will lead to more effective deployment of capital in these businesses, while capturing savings in our cost structure, driving greater value for our shareholders."

DuPont will continue to have six reporting segments and the consolidation will be effective Jan 1.

The consolidation comes less than a month after Edward Breen took over as the company's interim chief executive, following CEO Ellen Kullman's resignation on Oct. 5.