Leggett & Platt completes divestiture program

Carthage, Missouri, US-based Leggett & Platt (Leggett), a leading producer of drawn steel wire and bed springs in addition to other manufacturing areas, has announced that it has sold its storage products business to Georgia, US-based SPG International, LLC. The sale completes the company’s divestiture program, which constitutes a significant part of its strategic realignment first introduced to investors in November 2007, the company said.

According to a Leggett statement, since implementation of the new strategy, Leggett has sold seven business units for a combined $433 million of after-tax cash proceeds, exceeding the original $400 million goal. The divestiture program has reshaped Leggett & Platt by narrowing the company's primary focus to businesses with distinct competitive advantages, value-added engineering and manufacturing operations, and significant barriers to entry, the company pointed out.

CEO and president David S. Haffner commented, "Leggett is a smaller company today, with over $3 billion of revenue expected in 2010, compared to $5.5 billion at our peak. We are well poised to benefit when the economy recovers, and have ample production capacity that should generate healthy incremental margins as sales rebound."