Lanxess expands US distribution pact with RD Abbott

Cerritos, California — RD Abbott Co Inc. has received expanded distribution agreements with two business units of Lanxess Corp.

The Tire and Specialty Rubber and Advanced Industrial Intermediates units have extended RDA's territory to the entire continental US. RDA had previously represented Lanxess' product lines in the Western US.

Both agreements took effect in July and are standard, year-to-year, contracts.

“RD Abbott strives to partner with the best suppliers in the industry,” said Jerry McCall, RDA director of product management.

“Being granted expanded territories to promote products produced by the world's largest producer of synthetic rubber obviously is going to strengthen us. In this day, it's all about customer convenience, and to be able to offer the full line of products to all the customers we serve gives us the right mix of technical rubber products to satisfy almost anyone's request.”

The agreement with Lanxess' Advanced Industrial Intermediates unit includes the following accelerators, antioxidants, antidegradants and mastication agents: Vulkacit CZ, DM, DZ, Merkapto, NZ and ZM; Vulkanox 4010, 4020, 4030, HS, HB2 and ZMB2; Vulkazon AFS; and Renacit 11.

RDA's pact with the Tire and Specialty Rubber unit includes Lanxess' X_Butyl – including regular butyl, chlorobutyl, bromobutyl and ionomer – and Buna – including CoBR, NdBR, LiBR, ESBR and SSBR.

Lanxess said its Rhein Chemie Additives affiliate has ceased distribution of these product lines.

McCall said RDA's relationship with Lanxess dates back to 2002, prior to being spun off from Bayer AG. The firm is a full-service supplier to the rubber industry with a testing lab, a mixing room and more than 20 rubber chemists.

“I believe RD Abbott's people, culture and commitment to the North American rubber industry was the primary driver for our new deals with Lanxess,” McCall said.

“Obviously they look at things like historical performance, long-term customer relationships and how well we were aligned with the industry, but I do truly believe it's our people that sets us apart from the others.”

The firm operates seven warehouse locations – in Cerritos, its headquarters; Houston and Loreto, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Bridgeview and Lincoln, Illinois.; and Queretaro, Mexico.

RDA has been preparing for growth since 2014. McCall said it expanded its lab in Cerritos, secured a few new warehouses and hired 20 people in the last two years.

“We've been aggressively expanding for the last 18 to 24 months, which puts in a pretty good position to service the new geography from Lanxess right out of the gate,” McCall said.

“Our corporate objectives in 2014 and 2015 were to move in this direction. We would have needed to add people but completed this on the front side in anticipation of things to come.”

RDA is a North American supplier and stocking distributor of materials used in rubber compounding and fabrication—including elastomeric polymers, chemicals and ancillary products.

Lanxess Corp. is the North American subsidiary of Lanxess AG, a global specialty chemicals company with sales of about $9.6 billion (€13.2 billion) in 2014, employing 16,600 in 29 countries with 52 production sites worldwide.