SCHAUMBUR, IL - Harold Bevis, President and CEO of Pliant Corporation, announced today the investment of $15 million to expand value-added production capacity at 3 of the company's personal care and food products manufacturing facilities in North America. The facilities are located in McAlester, OK; Macedon, NY and Washington, GA. The capital expansion will serve the company's growing market segments and expanding product lines for personal care and food applications. These investments support Pliant's core positions as an industry leading bakery and frozen food bag supplier and an industry leading personal care and medical products supplier. Specific equipment involved in this expansion includes two new high-speed, wide-web, 10-color process printing press lines; a new state-of-the-art 156' wide, 7-layer cast embossed co-extrusion upgrade; and, a next-generation electron beam polymer coating line.

Ken Swanson, President of Pliant Corporation's Personal Care and Food Products businesses said "This investment is an important part of Pliant's overall growth strategy and confirms our long-term commitment to bringing value-added capabilities into the personal care market, the medical marker, the frozen food market, the bakery market and the poultry market. Pliant plans to continue investing in technologies that strategically grow our positions with premier customers in these areas. These investments are designed to significantly upgrade and expand unique manufacturing assets that deliver world class innovation and raw material management into our target markets."

All equipment has been ordered over the last few months and is expected to be fully installed and operational at various times during 2005 beginning in June. Highlights of these investments include:

• Two new 10 color printing presses that will increase Pliant's press capacity and allow better positioning in North America to be able to serve growth applications from multiple plant locations. Pliant will have 5 printing plants that service North American customers at the completion of this expansion.
• A 7-layer cast embossed co-extrusion expansion that will deliver unique fractional gauge, in-line slitting capabilities and will be coupled with new highly efficient winding technology.
• A next-generation electron beam polymer coating line. Electron beam coating technology offers significant advancements over traditional film constructions for certain food applications in the frozen food and bakery markets. Pliant has been an innovator in this technology and has applied for patent protection in certain areas of the process.

Swanson further stated, "This is the first phase of a multi-year investment plan to make personal care and food products cornerstone franchise businesses for Pliant. WE are a market leader today and we are aggressively expanding our capabilities and product portfolio into value-added areas in our effort to remain a supplier of choice for the premier customers in these markets. We are very proud of our business and we are excited about the value-added expansions that are underway. These investments will bring a lot of value to our food and personal care customers."

Pliant Corporation is a leading producer of value-added film and flexible packaging products for Consumer Food packaging into the bakery, frozen food and poultry industries and supplies solutions for the personal care, medical, industrial and agricultural markets. The company operates 25 manufacturing and research and development facilities around the world, and employs approximately 3,015 people.

For more information, please contact Lori Roberts, PLaint's Senior Vice-President of Human Resources, at (847) 969-3357 or visit www.pliantcorp.com