From Crompton & Knowles to Uniroyal to Chemtura, the local chemical plant in Elmira was officially acquired last Friday and given its new name – LANXESS.
LANXESS is a specialty chemical company based in Cologne, Germany. The acquisition was announced in 2016, but it’s taken some time to sort out all the paperwork across international borders.
Executives met with Chemtura staff at the locations in Elmira and West Hill earlier this week. This is LANXESS’ largest acquisition ever at 2.4 billion euros. This includes approximately 2,500 employees at 20 locations in 11 countries.
Lisa Goldstone, LANXESS’ head of corporate communications, says the decision to acquire Chemtura was all about growth.
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“Chemtura really fits into the growth plan that LANXESS has. Particularly they’ve targeted North America as a growth industry and with Chemtura being a North American company and also playing leadership roles in the industry that they’re in, it really supports that for us.”
She says the plan is for the sites to continue operating as usual under local management with no human resources plans to make adjustments to staffing.
“It will just be a LANXESS organization now and the new organizational structure will be basically the plans that are there now will be part of the lubricant additives business unit which rolls up into the additives business segment.”
She says there’s a lot of overlap between the two companies and this will just enable them to increase their product offering.
“The idea is for us to have some long-term, sustainable growth using the innovation that Chemtura brings to the market.”
The acquisition of Chemtura is a significant milestone in their growth and considerably strengthens their presence in the North American market, she says.
As for plans to continue with Chemtura’s environmental cleanup, she says that any ongoing plans will be continued.
Now that the acquisition is closed, they will evaluate all liabilities and risks and she says it is their policy to fully support environmental and chemical protection.
