PolyOne Wins Prestigious "Best Process Excellence Program" Award

CLEVELAND, March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- PolyOne Corporation (NYSE: POL), a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions won the 2012 "Best Process Excellence Program" award from the International Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC) for the company's highly successful Lean Six Sigma program, which has delivered significant financial and operational improvements since its launch in 2008.

PolyOne was selected as the winner, following a rigorous judging process by a panel of industry experts. Competing companies were evaluated on their demonstration of world-class performance in categories such as direction setting and portfolio management, creating an environment for change, application of technology, and delivering benefits and results. This year, more than 100 companies from around the world competed for IQPC Process Excellence awards.

"PolyOne continues to set an outstanding example for translating the voice of the customer into business process improvement. They are the world's standard for operational excellence," said Rod Hill, a judge for IQPC and master black belt at JEA, an electric utility company based in Florida.

This most recent award follows IQPC's 2010 recognition of PolyOne as the "Best Start-Up - Business Process Excellence Program," an award for organizations that have had a structured program in place for two years or less.

"PolyOne is pleased and proud to have been recognized for the effectiveness of our business processes," said Tom Kedrowski, senior vice president, supply chain and operations, PolyOne Corporation. "The credit goes to our customers with whom we work collaboratively to best serve their needs, to our valued suppliers, and to our associates, who are constantly seeking and delivering innovative solutions for continual improvement."

"With more than 40 percent of our workforce now trained in LSS principles, we expect to further accelerate our programs, driving growth, improving productivity throughout the supply chain, and delivering increasing value to our customers and shareholders," said Stephen D. Newlin, chairman, president and CEO, PolyOne Corporation.

About PolyOne

PolyOne Corporation, with 2011 revenues of $2.9 billion, is a premier provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions. Headquartered outside Cleveland, Ohio USA, PolyOne has operations around the world. Consistent with the company's strategy of specialty growth and global expansion, in December of 2011 PolyOne acquired ColorMatrix Group, Inc., a highly specialized company with a premier suite of additive technologies and a leading market position in liquid colorants.  For additional information on PolyOne, visit our Web site at www.polyone.com.

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Forward-looking Statements

In this press release, statements that are not reported financial results or other historical information are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not guarantees of future performance.  They are based on management's expectations that involve a number of business risks and uncertainties, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements.  They use words such as "will," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial condition, performance and/or sales.  Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: disruptions, uncertainty or volatility in the credit markets that could adversely impact the availability of credit already arranged and the availability and cost of credit in the future; the financial condition of our customers, including the ability of customers (especially those that may be highly leveraged and those with inadequate liquidity) to maintain their credit availability; the speed and extent of an economic recovery, including the recovery of the housing and chlor-alkali markets; our ability to achieve new business gains; the effect on foreign operations of currency fluctuations, tariffs, and other political, economic and regulatory risks; changes in polymer consumption growth rates where we conduct business; changes in global industry capacity or in the rate at which anticipated changes in industry capacity come online; fluctuations in raw material prices, quality and supply and in energy prices and supply; production outages or material costs associated with scheduled or unscheduled maintenance programs; unanticipated developments that could occur with respect to contingencies such as litigation and environmental matters; an inability to achieve or delays in achieving or achievement of less than the anticipated financial benefit from initiatives related to working capital reductions, cost reductions, employee productivity goals and our new global organization structure; an inability to raise or sustain prices for products or services; an inability to maintain appropriate relations with unions and employees; the inability to achieve expected results from our acquisition activities; our ability to continue to pay cash dividends; the amount and timing of repurchases of our common shares, if any; SunBelt's future results of operations and corresponding impact on any additional earn-outs that we may be entitled to; the ability to successfully integrate ColorMatrix and achieve the expected results from the acquisition, including the acquisition being accretive; the ability to retain ColorMatrix's management team and its relationships with customers; the ability to successfully form and operate our joint venture in the Middle East; and other factors affecting our business beyond our control, including, without limitation, changes in the general economy, changes in interest rates and changes in the rate of inflation.  The above list of factors is not exhaustive.

We undertake no obligation to publicly update forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.  You are advised to consult any further disclosures we make on related subjects in our reports on Form 10-Q, 8-K and 10-K that we provide to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE PolyOne Corporation