EXHIBIT 99.1

September 20, 2004


Schaumburg,  Ill.  -- Harold  Bevis,  President  and CEO of Pliant  Corporation,
announced  today  that  James Ide has  joined  the  company  as  Executive  Vice
President and Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately.

Jim was most  recently  Chief  Financial  Officer  and  Treasurer  of Next Level
Communications, Inc., a publicly traded provider of telecommunications equipment
which was acquired by Motorola,  Inc. in 2003.  Jim spent the majority of his 18
year   career  at  Motorola  in  audit  and   financial   roles  of   increasing
responsibility.  He lived in China for over three  years  during the  greenfield
startup of Motorola's mobile handset operations in the early 1990s, during which
time the  business  grew to over $1  billion  in sales.  Jim began his career at
Arthur Andersen & Co. in Chicago. He holds a Masters of International Management
from Thunderbird and a B.B.Ad in Accounting and Spanish from Gonzaga University.
He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

"It is an honor and a great  advancement  for Pliant to have a leader with Jim's
skills and  experience on the team.  Under his  leadership,  we will continue to
focus crisply on the drivers of our performance in operational excellence,  cost
drivers,  profit  drivers  and  cashflow"  said  Harold  Bevis,  "as well as the
continued  implementation of sustainable,  contemporary financial processes that
are systematized, repeatable and common across Pliant."

Jim fills the  opening  created  when Brian  Johnson  accepted  the  position of
Executive  Vice  President of Strategy and Business  Development in May, and has
held both this new and CFO role since then.

Jim Ide also joins Pliant's  Leadership  Team as one of the most senior members.
Pliant  stays  focused on organic  growth  programs  and leading the industry in
operational  excellence and supply chain performance.  Jim has a broad knowledge
base in all of these  topic  areas  and  will  play a key  role in  leading  the
achievement of Pliant's goals in the coming years.

Jim and his  family  already  reside  in the  Chicago  area  close  to  Pliant's
headquarters locations, and will start this position immediately.

Pliant  Corporation  is a leading  producer  of  value-added  film and  flexible
packaging products for personal care, medical, food, industrial and agricultural
markets.  The Company  operates 25  manufacturing  and research and  development
facilities around the world, and employs approximately 3,015 people.