the company has paid increasing dividends for 31 consecutive years and was founded in 1858, making it one of the oldest businesses on the market. bemis employs 17,000 people in 61 facilities located in 11 countries around the world. the company is the focus of part 47 of the dividend aristocrats in focus series. bemis&rsquo operations are analyzed below to give a better idea of how the company functions.business overviewwhen i last wrote about bemis, i discussed how their business was broken down into three segments us packaging, global packaging, and pressure sensitive materials. the us and global packaging segments are obviously related and help the company reach greater efficiencies through scale. the pressure sensitive materials segment contributed just 6 of total operating income for the company through its full fiscal 2013. bemis recently announced the sale of its pressure sensitive materials business to the private equity group platinum equity for 170 million. the pressure sensitive materials segment was sold for an price to ebit ratio of about 5.67. bemis&rsquo ceo william austin best sums up the reasoning for the divestiture&ldquobemis is now positioned to dedicate all of our resources to accelerating strategic growth in our core flexible packaging business.&rdquothe percent of total revenue and operating income each of bemis&rsquo remaining two segments has contributed to the company though the first 9 months of its fiscal 2014 are shown below to give an idea of the size and relative importance of each segment to bemis.segment name of revenue of operating incomeoperating marginus packaging663413.2global packaging78227.5competitive advantagethe packaging industry sounds like a lowtech industry in which to operate. this is not the case. bemis has managed to grow its dividend payments for 31 consecutive years by being at the cutting edge of the packaging industry. the company spent nearly 1 of revenue on research and development costs in full fiscal 2013. bemis is constantly looking for new innovations in packaging. the company is focusing on highbarrier packaging and liquid packaging to drive future growth. the image below shows some of the innovations resulting from bemis&rsquo research and development spending.
