Effective January 1, 2006, Lanxess Distribution GmbH will transfer responsibility for order acceptance and processing and invoicing for the Europe-wide distribution of leather chemicals to LANXESS S.r.l. - sole partner - in Italy.

Frank Paus, head of marketing and sales in the Leather Business Unit, said: "Significant changes in the market conditions across Europe, the desire to further improve efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility and, last but not least, enormous cost pressure have led us to streamline our European organisation."