Emerald Kalama Chemical Completes Acquisition, Renaming of Innospec Widnes LTD

Emerald Kalama Chemical, a business group of Emerald Performance Materials LLC, announced that it has acquired Innospec Widnes Limited. Emerald Kalama Chemical is a global producer of benzoic acid, benzaldehyde and other downstream specialty materials. The acquisition is the latest in a series of key strategic investments the company has made to expand these core product platforms targeted for food and beverage, consumer and industrial applications.  Emerald is a portfolio company of American Securities LLC, a leading private investment firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Innospec Widnes Limited, a subsidiary of Innospec Inc., is a leading manufacturer of high purity aroma chemicals, key ingredients that impart fragrance to perfumes and household products. In announcing the sale of this business to Emerald, Innospec, Inc. indicated that it will focus more of its resources on key businesses in fuel specialties, personal care and oilfield specialties. The Innospec Widnes business, located in Widnes, UK, will become part of the Emerald Kalama Chemical flavor and fragrance business and will do business under the Emerald Kalama Chemical Ltd. company name going forward.

Emerald Kalama Chemical has long been a recognized leader in the benzoate business, focused on benzoic acid, benzaldehyde, benzyl alcohol and sodium benzoate that have been manufactured at facilities in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Kalama, Wash. (USA) for more than 50 years. The company is also well known for its downstream derivatives based on benzoic acid, as well as Kalama® benzaldehyde a key feedstock used to produce specialty aroma chemicals at the company’s Kalama site and at the newly acquired operation in Widnes, UK.  Emerald will continue to serve both the current market needs and internal consumption demands for benzaldehyde from its existing capacity.  

“It is imperative to our overall growth strategy to expand our global footprint to support customers in our core markets around the world,” said Edward T. Gotch, CEO of Emerald Kalama Chemical and board member of the International Fragrance Association North America (IFRANA). “Emerald Kalama Chemical has been intentional in executing key investments to reshape the business into a market-focused leading global specialty chemical company since it was formed. We have experienced the benefits that a key acquisition can make to accelerate that transition process. At the time Emerald Kalama was formed, our business was primarily North American focused, and Asia was second given the location of our US-Pacific Coast plant. The acquisition of the Rotterdam operation in 2010, along with its established European sales and service team, accelerated our transition to a more global company. As a result, Europe has grown from 8 percent of our sales to 35 percent of our sales today. With additional investments, expansions and innovative new products, our business has tripled since our formation, and our vision is to double again by 2020.”

Gotch continued, “The Innospec Widnes acquisition represents another key step in executing on this strategy and dovetails with other recent investments to expand our infrastructure, capabilities and product range. We expect the acquisition of Innospec Widnes to have a significant impact on the global growth of our flavor and fragrance business, providing Emerald with a significant manufacturing presence in Europe and a great base from which to support our growth in that region.”

Since 2006, Emerald Kalama Chemical has made key investments in its flavor and fragrance business, expanding aroma chemicals at its U.S. operation and effectively doubling its capacity over that time period. The company continues to ramp up expansion activities in Europe. In April 2015, the company announced it is investing tens of millions of dollars on its latest expansions at Rotterdam, which will nearly double the capacity of high purity benzoic acid once complete, as well as increase capacity for downstream products. The company also expanded its technical center and added several new products to its aroma chemicals portfolio: 3-phenyl propanol, cinnamic alcohol and methyl benzoate. The company has also made key additions to its team to support its flavor and fragrance business.

Peter M. Fielder, vice president of Emerald Kalama Chemical’s flavor and fragrance (F&F) business, stated, “We are very enthusiastic about this acquisition and feel that the expertise and reputation of Innospec Widnes in the market closely parallels those of Emerald Kalama Chemical and our company as a whole. The acquisition of Innospec Widnes helps us to accomplish several key strategic goals, including the expansion of our footprint, global reach and service to customers in the flavor and fragrance industry. Our F&F operations in Widnes and Kalama are configured to be flexible, which will facilitate production of certain specialty materials at both sites. As a result, we will be able to offer our customers double the range of products in our aroma chemical line from our base on two continents, with an expanded commercial and technical team to provide improved service to our customers globally.”