Rhodia’s speciality surfactants business gets a boost

26-Jul-2010 - Last updated on 27-Jul-2010 at 10:50 GMT

Chemical company Rhodia is increasing and optimising its speciality surfactant production in order to better respond to market demand.

Speciality surfactants can be used in products such as shampoos, conditioners and shower gels to bring benefits such as mildness and moisturisation to formulations based on commodity surfactants.

Back in 2009, Rhodia purchased the global surfactants manufacturer McIntyre Group and with it inherited two facilities producing speciality surfactants, one in Halifax, UK and one in University Park in Illinois in the US, complementing its existing plant in Leeds, UK.

As part of the post-acquisition consolidation of the two businesses, Rhodia has announced it will be transferring its speciality surfactant operations from its plant in Leeds to the newly-acquired Halifax site, as well as investing further at both Halifax and University Park in the future.

Although exact details could not be given, a Rhodia spokesperson did say several millions of euros would be invested at the two sites over the next three years, and would provide Rhodia with a platform to make the most of market demand in the US and Europe.

“The investment program to optimize and increase capacity will provide a unique and sustainable industrial platform in the UK and also in the USA (University Park) to respond to the European and North American market needs,” the spokesperson told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com.

Minimised disruption to the workforce

The proximity of the two UK sites, (the Leeds site is 25km from the Halifax facility) has minimised the disruption to the site’s employees resulting from the closure, the spokesperson explained.

“The majority of the 40 employees of Leeds will transfer to the nearby Halifax plant. The combined operations will involve a reduction of 14 permanent positions (out of 79 directly involved at Leeds & Halifax), which we hope will be achieved wherever possible via voluntary redundancies; and non-renewal of temporary contracts (6 temporary positions),” the spokesperson said.

Transfer of the production is set to start in the third quarter of 2010 and be completed by the end of the first half of 2011.