Joplin’s EaglePicher completes restructuring

EPI and its U.S. subsidiaries, including EaglePicher Technologies, filed Chapter 11 petitions in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati on April 11, 2005. On Tuesday, the assets of EPI and its subsidiaries will be transferred to the newly formed EaglePicher Corp. and its subsidiaries.

The new corporation and its subsidiaries have new U.S. owners. The former EPI was owned by Netherlands-based equity funds. Angelo, Gordon & Company and Tennenbaum Capital Partners are the principal owners. The company said it was important to have American owners because of its extensive business with the federal government and U.S. Department of Defense.

EPC will operate as Hillsdale Automotive, Wolverine Advanced Materials, EP Boron, EaglePicher Technologies, EP Medical Batteries, EP Pharmaceutical Services and EP Minerals.

EPC is moving its headquarters to southeastern Michigan from Phoenix, Ariz. The company also said David Treadwell is being promoted from chief operating officer to president and CEO.

EaglePicher Technologies president Steve Westfall is also president of EP Boron, EP Pharmaceutical Services, and EP Medical Power, companies that were formerly under the old EaglePicher Technologies umbrella.

“Through restructuring we have realigned our cost structure to make us more competitive in our markets and rationalized our portfolio to bring a stronger focus on products and services that will carry us into the future,” Westfall said in a news release.

EaglePicher Technologies has operations in Joplin; Seneca; Miami, Okla.; Pittsburg, Kan.; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Germany.

“During the Chapter 11 restructuring process we focused on operational and quality improvements to benefit employees, customers and suppliers,” Westfall said in the release. “Our survival depended on them. It allowed us to look at where we were and where we really wanted and needed to be. We made changes with our customers first and foremost in mind. I am very confident about our new organization, leadership, current product offering and new product development. We are ready to write a new chapter in EaglePicher Technologies’ very long and successful history, and it will be a chapter of sustained growth.” [[In-content Ad]]