Bemis Company Celebrates 150th Anniversary by Ringing New York Stock Exchange Closing Bell
NEENAH, Wis., Jan 30, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Copyright Business Wire 2008
Bemis Company, Inc. (NYSE:BMS) will begin the celebration of its
150th anniversary by ringing The Closing Bell(R) at the New York Stock
Exchange on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. EST. The bell
ringing will be attended by Jeffrey Curler, Chairman and CEO of Bemis
Company, and the Bemis Board of Directors. A live webcast of the event
will be available beginning at 3:55 p.m. EST on the homepage of the
New York Stock Exchange, www.nyse.com.
Since it began in 1858 as a simple operation above a machine shop
in St. Louis, Missouri with only three employees, Bemis has grown to
become the largest flexible packaging company in the Americas and a
leader in the production of pressure sensitive materials, with 55
locations in 10 countries. The company has gone from producing simple
seamless cotton bags for shipping flour to providing innovative and
reliable packaging and pressure sensitive solutions to a vast array of
customers and markets.
"The ringing of the New York Stock Exchange closing bell marks the
beginning of an important year for Bemis," stated Curler. "We issued
our first shares of stock in 1885 and have been listed on the New York
Stock Exchange since 1966. Now, a century and a half after our
founding, we can take this opportunity to celebrate our rich and
distinctive history and look forward to continuing to serve our
customers with creative solutions for the next 150 years."
Judson Moss Bemis, founder of the Bemis Company, was the first to
champion the use of machine-sewn cotton bags instead of the hand-sewn
bags more commonly used at the time. Finding success in textile bag
production, Bemis produced new packaging materials as technology and
consumer trends developed, expanding into paper bag production in
1913. In the 1950s Bemis began to explore the extrusion, printing, and
conversion of polyethylene, and, in 1959, the company entered into the
pressure-sensitive adhesives business.
Since the 1960s, Bemis has grown significantly, extending its
presence in the United States and abroad with strategic acquisitions
and moving away from textile bag production. The company has developed
new technologies and products for food and consumer product packaging
and expanded into new markets such as medical device and
pharmaceutical packaging. In 2005, Bemis reached a new milestone,
surpassing the $3 billion mark with a record $3.5 billion in net
sales. As it moves into its anniversary year, Bemis anticipates a
future marked by the same dedication to its customers, employees,
shareholders, and consumers around the world that it has displayed in
the 150 years since its founding.
Anniversary celebrations will begin at the Bemis annual meeting in
May and include a traveling series of historical exhibits honoring the
Bemis Company's history of excellence and innovation. The exhibits
will be displayed at all Bemis locations worldwide.
About Bemis Company, Inc.
Bemis Company is a major supplier of flexible packaging and
pressure sensitive materials used by leading food, consumer products,
manufacturing, and other companies worldwide. Founded in 1858, the
Company reported 2007 net sales of $3.6 billion. The Company's
flexible packaging business has a strong technical base in polymer
chemistry, film extrusion, coating and laminating, printing, and
converting. The Company's pressure sensitive materials business
specializes in adhesive technologies. Headquartered in Neenah,
Wisconsin, Bemis employs about 15,700 individuals in 55 manufacturing
facilities in 10 countries around the world. More information about
the Company is available at our website, www.bemis.com.
SOURCE: Bemis Company, Inc.
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