6 Aug 2014
ERJ staff report (TP)
Cologne, Germany – Lanxess is pressing ahead with its restructuring plans by merging business units and reducing its workforce.
The company has defined a three-phase program, "Let’s Lanxess again”, divided into three areas to improve competitiveness: business & administration, operations, and portfolio.
Effective 1 January 2015, Lanxess will merge certain business units, reducing their number from 14 to 10. In addition, the company is reducing its workforce. The respective employee representatives will be involved in the process.
Lanxess will present further details on the restructuring at a “Media and Capital Markets Day” on 6 November.
It will combine the Butyl Rubber (BTR) and Performance Butadiene Rubbers (PBR) business units to form the Tire & Specialty Rubbers (TSR) business unit. The future head of this business unit is Jorge Nogueira.
In addition, Lanxess will recombine the High Performance Elastomers (HPE) and Keltan Elastomers (KEL) business units under the name High Performance Elastomers (HPE). This, too, is “prompted mainly by overlaps in the customer structure”. Jan Paul de Vries will head the new business unit.
The Rubber Chemicals (RUC) business unit's specialty chemicals product line, the Functional Chemicals (FCC) business unit and the Rhein Chemie (RCH) business unit will be combined to form the new Rhein Chemie Additives (ADD) business unit. The head of this new business unit will be Anno Borkowsky.
The second phase – operations competitiveness – will “examine all production facilities with respect to market requirements and synergy potential”. Par Singh will lead this initiative.
Lanxess has already taken first steps in the third area – portfolio competitiveness – but no specific details were provided in the press release.
The company said it will provide information on a regular basis about the implementation of the realignment, in addition to the restructuring, as of 2015.
Related story: Change in board of management at Lanxess
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