From the Sector

• Stephan Sielaff replaces interim CEO Cord Prinzhorn

• CFO Thomas Obendrauf will not extend his contract

• Chairman of the Supervisory Board Peter Edelmann will no longer be available as Chairman at the end of the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting

• Cord Prinzhorn returns to Supervisory Board and will take over as Chairman

The Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG has appointed Stephan Sielaff, the former CTO/COO of Lenzing AG, as the new CEO effective April 01, 2022. He succeeds Cord Prinzhorn, who took over as interim CEO in the fourth quarter of 2021. Cord Prinzhorn will return to the Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG. The Managing Board will thus be reduced again from five to four members.

Stephan Sielaff holds a degree in chemical engineering and held various management positions at Unilever and Symrise from 1993 to 2014. Between 2014 and 2020, he was responsible for the strategic development of the company as a Member of the Board of Directors (COO) at the Swiss specialty chemicals company Archroma – an important supplier of the textile and paper industry. He was appointed Chief Technology Officer and COO of Lenzing AG as of March 01, 2020.

CFO Thomas Obendrauf has informed the Supervisory Board that he will not be available for a further extension of his contract, which expires in June 2022. The Supervisory Board of Lenzing AG is already working on a timely replacement. Mr. Obendrauf will be available to the company in an advisory capacity until a successor is appointed.

Peter Edelmann will leave the Supervisory Board upon his own request, effective April 26, 2022. Cord Prinzhorn will return to the Supervisory Board and will take over as Chairman.

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, announced the relocation of its headquarters to the Haus der Wirtschaft (HDW) building in Pratteln, a satellite town of Basel, Switzerland.

The HDW building is a business hub hosting under one roof the Economic Chamber Baselland with other companies, as well as a fully-serviced conference and event center.

Archroma will focus its other site and current headquarters, located in the nearby town of Reinach, to laboratory and application development activities.

“With our new corporate headquarters in HDW, we are joining a dynamic business place”, comments Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO at Archroma. She adds: “Our Reinach site will be refocused as a ‘tech hub’ and will continue to develop leading innovations and sustainable system solutions to serve our markets. With this, we are strongly reaffirming our deep commitment to our Swiss roots and presence.”

Christoph Buser, Director of the Economic Chamber Baselland, adds: “We are very excited to welcome Archroma in the HDW offices. This successful and innovative company is an enrichment for this location, which stands for inspiration and a modern working community.”

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, announced that it has appointed Thomas Bucher as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective 1 October 2021, replacing Roland Waibel who will retire.

Thomas Bucher has a long career in Finance, having held CFO roles with leading industrial and services companies as well as senior Finance roles in the chemical sector. He joins Archroma from Alpiq Holding AG, where he has been Group CFO and a Member of the Executive Management Board since 2015. Prior to Alpiq, Thomas Bucher was Group CFO at Gategroup for 6 years, where he supported the company’s listing and subsequent strategic repositioning, and before that he held a number of senior Finance roles at Ciba Specialty Chemicals over more than 12 years.

Chief Executive Officer Heike van de Kerkhof comments: “We are very happy to have Thomas Bucher join us, and add his financial expertise to support our agenda towards confirming Archroma as an undisputed leader in innovative and sustainable specialty chemicals, supported by solid and profitable growth.”

She adds: “I want to thank Roland Waibel for his many contributions since the beginning of Archroma in 2013. He has played an important role helping the company deliver on our growth whilst building a strong finance expert team and expertise at Archroma.”

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, and Jeanologia, a world leader in sustainable and efficient technology development, today announced the launch of ‘Pad-Ox G2 Cold’, a water-saving dyeing process at room temperature for casual looks.

Archroma initially introduced its eco-advanced Pad-Ox dyeing process for woven fabrics, and then used it as part of its ADVANCED DENIM concept. By combining the oxidation and fixation steps, it is possible to shorten the dyeing process and thus realize substantial resource savings in water, wastewater, cotton waste, and energy.

Over the years the company has worked with its textile manufacturers and partners to improve the Pad-Ox process, in particular woven applications such as chinos and casual wear. To achieve maximum positive impact, Archroma is using its Diresul® range of low sulfide sulfur dyes and, more recently, its innovative plant-based range of EarthColors®. A wide selection of dyes from these two ranges have received the Cradle-to-Cradle Product Innovation Institute’s Platinum Level Material Health Certification.

Meanwhile, Jeanologia has been working on the technology side, with laser and eco-finishing solutions for more than 25 years, accompanying the textile industry on their way to producing with zero discharge. In 2008, the company introduced its G2 Dynamic the first ozone treatment for continuous fabric that dramatically reduces the amount of water and chemicals used, while at the same time saving costs at the mill and eventually at the garment finishing facilities. This technology makes fabric more stable and consistent and prepares the fabric better for the use of other technologies like laser. This machinery can be used along with Pad-Ox technology to help cleaning fabric thus improve fastness results. While it allows process to work at room temperature.

Project focus on water saving
Archroma and Jeanologia therefore understandably decided to team up and combine their expertise in sustainable dyeing and finishing technologies. The objective of the project was to improve the Pad-Ox dyeing process even further, in particular in one area that still offered room for positive impact: temperature and fastnesses.

The new ‘Pad-Ox G2 Cold’ dyeing process works thanks to the insertion of very small machinery into the existing finishing range process, using cold processing and thus operating with much less water, carbon footprint and energy than traditional benchmark fabric finishing processes, whilst retaining the water and other resource savings offered by the Pad-Ox technology.

Maximum savings can be achieved by mills and garment manufacturers who wish to switch from a conventional dyeing process straight to ‘Pad -Ox G2 Cold’ to obtain high quality fabrics for comfortable and casual wear.

Reinach, Switzerland, and Westlake, Ohio, 2 February 2021 - Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with technology innovator CleanKore, aiming to advance sustainable dyeing processes throughout the denim supply chain.

The agreement will allow Archroma and CleanKore to promote the benefits of each other’s technologies. This includes Archroma’s robust catalog of dyes and specialty chemicals along with CleanKore’s patented process of dyeing yarns at the denim mill that completely eliminates the need for potassium permanganate (PP) spray and laser booster to achieve the bright white abrasion effect in the garment finishing process. The result is a large and circular bright white core with a small ring of indigo dye. The technology does not just eliminate the chemicals associated in the PP spray and laser process, which is much safer for denim workers, it also allows to save significant amounts of water and energy throughout the manufacturing process from fabric to garmenting.

CleanKore initially looked at eliminating potassium permanganate due to its being classified as hazardous if inhaled or ingested, or in case of contact with the skin or the eye. It is also considered very toxic to aquatic life. No new equipment or capital expenses are needed to implement the CleanKore technology, which works on all denim fabric, including dark indigo, sulfur top/bottom and sulfur black.

This is where Archroma comes into the picture. Its global technical team of denim coloration specialists will provide support to denim mills seeking to implement the CleanKore technology and develop the desired looks and effects - with the right colors and chemical systems for their production set-up.

CleanKore estimates that the technology allows to save up to 15 liters of water per garment, or the equivalent to the drinking needs of 5 people per day, and up to 0.51 kWh of energy per garment, or the equivalent of five 100-watt light bulbs on for 1 hour. The CleanKore technology also leads to a 10% to 20% increase in production throughput, as a result of a faster garment wash-down and the elimination of PP spray.

For CleanKore CEO Darryl Costin Jr., the announcement comes at an ideal time for CleanKore: "We have successfully proven the technology with mill partners such as Arvind and other denim mills in Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Thailand and the United States. The response from the industry has been overwhelmingly positive. Having a partner in Archroma, one that is highly respected for their innovation and emphasis on sustainability throughout the industry, will allow us to take CleanKore to the next level.”

Umberto Devita, Global Indigo Manager at the Archroma Global Competence Center for Denim & Casualwear, adds: "CleanKore is perfectly aligned with the 3 pillars of 'The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient, enhanced'. 'Safe' through the elimination of a potentially harmful substance and the protection of the denim workers, 'Efficient' through the reduction of resource consumption, improved productivity and cost-effective profile. And 'Enhanced' through the gorgeous colors and effects allowed with Archroma's innovations and systems, in particular our aniline-free* Denisol® Pure Indigo and Diresul® sulfur dyes. We look forward to help promoting an innovation that will help with many of the challenges facing our denim customers throughout the world. Because it’s our nature."

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, today announced the release of its third Sustainability Report.

Prepared again in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, and covering Fiscal Year 2019, the report outlines the company’s progress on its priority sustainability topics, such as human health and environmental safety, resource efficiency, sustainable sourcing and product stewardship, as well as diversity & inclusion, and talent management.

All activities described in the report support the 3 pillars of “The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient, enhanced. It’s our nature." This approach is the company’s guiding light in challenging the status quo to making its operations and its value chains sustainable.

“As our industries navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, the temptation for some will be to push back on the urgent need to address the climate crisis. We cannot allow that. Because after all, it's our nature”, Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO of Archroma, comments.

The report can be downloaded here.

Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, today announced that the 4,320 color references of its Color Atlas library have been selected by Shima Seiki and integrated into their ‘SDS-ONE APEX’ series of software for the design, planning and virtual sampling of textile and apparel.

Shima Seiki is a leading provider of digitally optimized solutions for the fashion industry, who combines its on-demand ‘WHOLEGARMENT’ knitting machine with realistic virtual sampling. Based on actual yarn data, fabric simulations generated on the SDS-ONE APEX-series are unparalleled in quality and realism. Design and simulation are available for knits and various other textile applications, and smooth transition to machine programming is possible for quick and accurate design-to-manufacture interface.

That is where the Color Atlas by Archroma® will considerably benefit to the users of Shima Seiki’s solutions.

The Color Atlas was launched in 2016 to provide fashion designers and stylists with off-the-shelf color inspiration that can be implemented in production with just a few clicks.

The Color Atlas continues to evolve in line with Archroma’s commitment to sustainability through innovation. The company describes it as “The Archroma Way to a sustainable world: safe, efficient, enhanced, it’s our nature”. All color references available in the Color Atlas have been formulated with products that comply with leading international eco-standards, and can be selected based on the desired sustainability profile.

Today, the Color Atlas contains 4,320 colors applicable on cotton poplin, almost the double compared to similar tools available to textile and fashion specialists. Technical support is available to designer, manufacturers, as well as brands and retailers, through Archroma’s global offices - for every single color from its selection to its implementation in production. Engineered color standards empowered by NFC technology are also available for all colors and reproducible in production.

With this new collaboration, the users of the SDS-ONE APEX design software of Shima Seiki will have at their disposal 4320 colors that they can visualize, evaluate and implement, in a considerably accelerated process from the first creative idea to the production to the final outlet, whether online or in brick-and-mortar shops.

“Accurate color evaluation and communication are very important issues for design work”, explains Hideya Ohtani, General Manager, Graphic System Development Division, at Shima Seiki. “We have high expectations for Archroma's Color Atlas to help our APEX series users develop their products in an even more smooth and accurate manner.“

“We are proud to bring our Color Atlas library to the users of Shima Seiki’s extremely advanced design software,” says Chris Hipps, Head of Co lor Management Services, at the Archroma Brand Studio. “Designers and users of the software will have at their disposal not only color options they never had before but also colors that they can trust will be implementable right away. That’s what we strive to do at Archroma: create a new way of working: safe, efficient and enhanced. It’s our nature!”

As part of its active engagement in the fight against COVID-19, Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, started bulk production of a new range of hand sanitizers at its Landhi site in Pakistan in May 2020. The new Kieralon® HS range was developed by the R&D team at the Archroma Center of Excellence in Karachi, in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations.

Sanitizers are currently in high demand in Pakistan in hospitals, isolation centers, medical institutes and other health care environments, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The use of sanitizers has also been made mandatory in all factories, offices and public places, driving the demand even higher.

The Kieralon® HS range is being produced in different grades and concentrations to eliminate a broad range of germs, bacteria and viruses, to cater for various healthcare and hygiene requirements. They also include emollients and display non-stick and quick drying effect, for skin comfort.

In April 2020, Archroma announced the introduction in Brazil of Mowiplus® HPC 9600, a new thickener for sanitizing gels, developed to address the global shortage in the thickener traditionally used for sanitizing gels.

Archroma is also actively supporting manufacturers in the production of face masks and medical protective equipment. Its antimicrobial and barrier products in particular are in high demand, and Archroma is making every effort to assist existing and new customers entering this sector by providing technical know-how and support.

The company is supporting producers of packaging & paper who are facing high demand for food packaging as many restaurants have switched to delivery or take-away, as well as for parcels and boxes supporting online shopping.

Mujtaba Rahim, CEO of Archroma Pakistan comments, “Within Archroma we are cognizant of the acute community need for high quality hygiene products that are also comfortable for users, as hand sanitizers tend to be harsh on the skin, so we took on the challenge to develop and start production in record time. The Archroma team in Pakistan won’t rest in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and hopes this new product will help to stop the spread of the virus and the suffering that it causes.”

• Esprit selects EarthColors® by Archroma for its newest ‘I AM SUSTAINABLE’ capsule collection

Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, today announced a new collaboration with Esprit, the global fashion clothing brand, who selected the EarthColors® range for its ‘I AM SUSTAINABLE’ capsule collection.

Esprit creates laid-back, high-quality essentials that reflect its core values of sustainability, equality and freedom of choice. The brand developed its first eco-conscious collection made of 100% organic cotton, back in the early 90’s.

Archroma’s EarthColors® range came to public attention for being the Gold Winner of the OutDoor Industry Award 2017, Sustainable Innovations category.

The range is regularly featured by brands such as Kathmandu, G-Star and Ternua, who are willing to explore truly innovative and authentic color options for more eco-conscious casual wear collections.
Archroma’s EarthColors® is a line of patented plant-based dyes, sourced from up to 100 percent renewable resources.

Archroma developed EarthColors® using non-edible waste products, from agriculture and herbal industries, to replace petroleum derived raw materials; which are the conventional raw materials used to synthesize dyes currently. This gives brands an alternative when looking for more natural ways of dyeing garments.
The collection is available online: www.esprit.eu/earthcolors.

In mid-March, CHT Germany GmbH, which specializes in specialty chemicals, took up production and distribution of hand disinfectant. Now the company is expanding its product portfolio by adding important medical supplies that can help fight Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2). Starting immediately, CHT is providing its business customers with surface disinfectant, textile supplies for medical protective wear as well as supplies for test kits and face masks.

Following increased demand for disinfectant in the wake of the new coronavirus, the CHT Group began already a month and a half ago to produce hand disinfectant at its factory in Dußlingen. Since then, more of its factories around the world had joined in. Now the CHT Group is complementing this offering by producing its own surface disinfectant based on ethanol. As with the hand disinfectant, the production of the surface disinfectant received a special approval, based on the expanded general ruling by the German Federal Agency  for Chemicals (BAuA). Both types of disinfectant use publicly available standard formulas for alcohol-based disinfectant from the World Health Organization (WHO). The sale of CHT’s surface disinfectant, which is available in 5-, 10- and 30-liter canisters, is exclusively for use by industry customers.

In addition, the CHT Group is manufacturing a range of textile-relevant products that provide protection from Covid-19. These include functional supplies for face masks for medical protective wear, as well as flocking for test kits. Through these offerings, the CHT Group also wants to support the textile sector, which has been strongly affected by the crisis.