Schulman A., Inc. Value Stock - Dividend - Research Selection

A. Schulman, Inc. (the “Company,” “A. Schulman,” “we,” “our” and “us”) was founded as an Ohio corporation in 1928 by Alex Schulman in Akron, Ohio as a processor of rubber compounds. During those early days, when Akron, Ohio was known as the rubber capital of the world, Mr. Schulman saw opportunity in taking existing rubber products and compounding new formulations to meet underserved market needs. As the newly emerging science of polymers began to make market strides in the early 1950s, A. Schulman was there to advance the possibilities of the technology, leveraging its compounding expertise into developing solutions to meet exact customer application requirements. The Company later expanded into Europe, Latin America and Asia, establishing manufacturing plants, innovation centers and sales offices in numerous countries. The Company changed its state of incorporation to Delaware in 1969 and went public in 1972. Today, A. Schulman, Inc. is an international supplier of high-performance plastic formulations, resins, and services and provides innovative solutions to meet its customers' demanding requirements through proprietary and custom-formulated products. The Company's customers span a wide range of markets such as packaging, mobility, building & construction, electronics & electrical, agriculture, personal care & hygiene, custom services, and sports, home & leisure. Recent acquisitions are aimed to provide for a more specialized portfolio while strengthening the Company's core businesses serving customers across a broader set of markets.

The Company leverages the following competitive advantages to develop and maintain strong customer relationships and drive continued profitable growth:

• The Company's sales, marketing and technical teams partner with customers to understand needs and provide tailored solutions that enhance their success through its broad and diverse product line.

• The Company has a solid reputation in product innovation and application development driven by its market knowledge and insights, customer relationships and research and development capabilities. To further enhance these capabilities, the Company continues to leverage its five global Innovation and Collaboration Centers located in Belgium, Germany, Mexico and two in the United States. These centers combine research and innovation in plastics engineering and application technology with specific product developments. They manage the development of collaborative business projects through networks comprised of customers, suppliers, and in some instances, academic institutions and research centers. In addition, the Company also has over a dozen application development centers located within existing facilities. The Company has a long history of successful application development and these dedicated resources further the Company’s advancement with customers and new markets.

• The Company's procurement organization is critical to its success as its global purchasing leverage strategy positions the Company to formulate and manufacture products competitively.

• The Company has manufacturing facilities worldwide allowing it to be an ideal partner by quickly servicing target markets for its local and global customers.

The Company has a strong presence in global markets, providing new and enhanced product solutions that result in a product portfolio that is strongly positioned in the markets we serve. With world-class Innovation and Collaboration Centers and manufacturing facilities that host application development centers strategically positioned around the world, A. Schulman is able to anticipate and respond to changing market and customer needs. Accordingly, the Company's collaboration between development, sourcing and production is especially important to the Company and its customers, as a quick response to meet their needs is critical. Of course, a quick response means little without quality. A. Schulman has a proud history of consistently supplying products of the highest standards, which is evidenced by the Company's numerous certifications, accreditations and supplier awards.

Business Segments

The Company considers its operating structure and the types of information subject to regular review by its President and Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), who is the Chief Operating Decision Maker (“CODM”), to identify reportable segments. The CODM makes decisions, assesses performance and allocates resources by the following reportable segments: Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”), United States & Canada ("USCAN"), Latin America ("LATAM"), Asia Pacific (“APAC”), and Engineered Composites ("EC").

The CODM uses net sales to unaffiliated customers, segment gross profit, and segment operating income in order to make decisions, assess performance and allocate resources to each segment. Segment operating income does not include items such as restructuring and related costs including accelerated depreciation, asset impairments, or costs and inventory step-up charges related to business acquisitions. Corporate expenses include the compensation of certain personnel, certain audit expenses, Board of Directors related costs, certain insurance costs, costs associated with being a publicly traded entity and other miscellaneous legal and professional fees, which are not allocated to the segments.