Leather is part of “new strategic focus” at Lanxess
05/11/2015
The Cologne-based company announced on November 5 that its sales for the third quarter of 2015 reached €1.95 billion, a fall of 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. It said the decline was largely attributable to “selling price adjustments owing to lower raw material costs”. However, its earnings for the quarter increased by 11.9% to €235 millio, thanks, it said, to a strong US dollar and also to savings it has begun to glean from a wide-ranging “realignment programme”.
Lanxess said the effects of this programme are already evident and that by the end of 2015, it will already be in a position to achieve annual savings of €150 million from the first phase of its efforts to improve administrative and business structures, one year earlier than expected. Chairman, Matthias Zachert, said Lanxess now intended to “pick up the pace” of its realignment programme, owing to “subdued” global economic growth and “uncertainty” in many emerging markets.
“Lanxess will be a more profitable and less cyclical specialty chemicals company,” Mr Zachert said, “with a balanced portfolio of quality products and with growth potential.” It is in this context that it has decided to focus on mid-sized markets and defined its “strategic cornerstones” for future growth. As well as leather and water treatment, its main areas of focus will include chemical intermediates and additives, agrochemicals, colour pigments and high-tech plastics.
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