Press release
Corporate Press
June 12, 2008

Evonik Restructures Colorants Business

Evonik Industries AG’s Coatings & Additives Business Unit is reorganizing its colorants business to position itself early in the fiercely competitive international market. Under a matrix model, market responsibility will be exercised in the future at the local level, while central marketing, technology, and operation functions will be globally aligned. Dr. Hans-Peter Schaufler, head of the business unit, says: “With this new matrix organization, we're creating a workable model for the future to strengthen our position sustainably in the colorants market.”

The new Coatings & Additives Business Unit comprises five different business lines, including Adhesive Resins & Colorants, to which the Colorants business belongs. The business unit offers a wide range of raw materials for the coatings and adhesives industries. Evonik develops here, for example, universal color blending systems that are environmentally friendly and free from volatile organic components. At several levels of development, the company works in close conjunction with partners and customers and, by linking and pooling individual strengths within the Group, creates intelligent system solutions.

Jochen Rosenau, head of the business line, adds: “We follow a special strategy in the NAFTA Region for architectural colorants, which are the color systems used in the construction industry.” The focus here is on high-performance systems such as the environmentally friendly product COLORTREND® 808. Customers thus get future-oriented system solutions. COLORTREND® 808 belongs to the COLORTREND® product range, which consists of universal decorative color systems for the automated, volumetric tinting of waterborne and solvent-based paints and coatings.

New regional contacts in the area of colorants:

  • John Kennedy (The Americas)
  • Heinz-Günter Lux (Europe)
  • Dominic Parsonson (Greater China)
  • John Dry (AustralAsia).

Global responsibility for the central functions is held by

  • Martin Welp (Global Marketing)
  • Brij Mohal (Global Technical) and
  • Matthias Creutz (Global Operations).

Further information is available at www.evonik.com and www.smartformulating.com

About Evonik

Evonik Industries is the creative industrial group from Germany which operates in three business areas: Chemicals, Energy and Real Estate. Evonik is a global leader in specialty chemicals, an expert in power generation from hard coal and renewable energies, and one of the largest private residential real estate companies in Germany. Our strengths are creativity, specialization, continuous self-renewal, and reliability. Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In its fiscal year 2007 about 43,000 employees generated sales of about €14.4 billion and an operating profit (EBIT) of more than €1.3 billion.

Disclaimer

In so far as forecasts or expectations are expressed in this press release or where our statements concern the future, these forecasts, expectations or statements may involve known or unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results or developments may vary, depending on changes in the operating environment. Neither Evonik Industries AG nor its group companies assume an obligation to update the forecasts, expectations or statements contained in this release.