Name: Dupont  

        Address: Chestnut Run Plaza, 705/GS38                 

City: Wilmington, Del   

CEO:  Charles O. (Chad) Holiday, Jr.

Product: Chemicals Phone: 800-441-7515   

Year Founded: 1802    

     DuPont launched a global plan to reduce costs, improve productivity and better serve its customers in its performance coatings businesses — steps which will improve profitability and competitiveness.

      “The steps we are announcing will reduce annual costs in our coatings businesses by $165 million through facility consolidations and rebalancing our assets toward faster growing market segments and geographies, while continuing to provide excellent service to our customers in existing markets,” said Terry Caloghiris, group vice president for DuPont Coatings & Color Technologies.

      Under the plan, DuPont will tailor marketing strategies to key customers and segments, leverage technology globally and consolidate manufacturing and technical assets. The company plans to close and consolidate laboratory and manufacturing sites resulting in the reduction of approximately 1,500 positions, most of them in Europe.

      This is in addition to a February announcement that approximately 200 positions would be eliminated in association with the closing of the company’s Troy, Mich. laboratory and its consolidation into its Mt. Clemens, Mich. facility.

      “This transformation plan is designed not only to improve the short-term health of these businesses, but also to ensure a future of sustainable, profitable growth,” said DuPont Chairman and CEO Chad Holliday.

      The plan also includes actions to open new sites and establish new joint ventures in growing market areas, strengthening technology resources and intensifying focus on growth businesses. Among growth initiatives taken by DuPont recently are a new automotive finishes laboratory opened in late 2005 at Aichi, Japan, and new manufacturing facilities in China. In Februrary, the company formed a joint venture with Russian finishes supplier Russkie-Kraski to provide OEM coatings for the automobile and commercial vehicle industries in Russia and the former Soviet republics. The company also assumed full ownership of a former joint venture in Mexico, acquired its distributor in Poland and opened a new industrial coatings facility in Brazil.

      The announcement identifies four manufacturing and laboratory facilities the company plans to close in Europe: the Rubi and Polinya sites in Spain, the Breda site in The Netherlands, and the Hellac Laboratory in Germany. It includes the reduction of sales and marketing, technical, manufacturing and administrative positions. As many affected employees as possible will be redeployed to other DuPont businesses and functions. In cases where redeployment is not successful, employees will receive assistance from DuPont in accordance with local country practices.

      DuPont expects to implement the plan within the next 18 months and estimates it will reduce annual costs by approximately $165 million. This plan

will result in one-time pre-tax restructur-ing charges of up to $165 million as well

as additional costs of up to $55 million over the next 12 months from accelerated depreciation and other costs associated with implementation of the plan.

      DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture, nutrition, electronics, communications, safety and protection, home and construction, transportation and apparel.

      In 1802, DuPont was primarily an explosives company. One hundred years ago, its focus turned to chemicals, materials and energy. Today, it delivers science-based solutions that make real differences in people’s lives around the world in areas such as food and nutrition, health care, apparel, safety and security, construction, electronics and transportation.

      The ability to adapt to change and a foundation of unending scientific inquiry has enabled DuPont to become one of the world’s most innovative companies.

      Holliday has been with DuPont for more than 30 years and has been chief executive officer since Feb. 1, 1998, and chairman since Dec. 31, 1998. He is former chair of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and is currently chair of The Business Council, a group of leading U.S. CEOs.

Sustainable growth

      DuPont is on a mission to achieve sustainable growth, which is defined as increasing shareholder and societal value while decreasing the company’s environmental footprint. The company has a three-part strategy: deliver new products through the power of integrated science, vigorously pursue knowledge intensity in all businesses, and significantly increase productivity by using Six Sigma methodology.

      Strengths in polymer science, chemistry, math, physics and engineering built the modern DuPont. World-class capabilities in biology and information science now complement its traditional core areas of excellence. Today, biology (biomaterials, agriculture, food) and electronics represent more than 20 percent of its business and should continue to have rapid growth rates

in the future.

      DuPont continues to broaden its traditional technical platforms in chemistry and materials science through fundamental and applied research in biotechnology.

      Knowledge intensity is a DuPont term meaning getting paid for what the company knows rather than simply for what it makes. Knowledge intensity is the opposite of capital intensity. It’s creating value from two centuries of experience, know-how and brand equity.

      Good examples of knowledge intensity in action include the DuPont Protective Apparel Marketing Company, a venture combining the strengths of DuPont Protective Apparel products (Kevlar, Tyvek, Tychem, Nomex, Sontara) with DuPont knowledge and expertise in operational safety. Comprehensive consulting services offered include training, implementation assistance and professional development for industrial customers and others who make decisions about worker safety.

      Productivity and quality improvements are fundamental to achieving sustainable growth. Six Sigma methodology is the cornerstone of this effort. Many of the more than 5,000 completed Six Sigma projects at DuPont have resulted in reduced environmental impact or increased safety. For example, at a U.S. plant, a Six Sigma project saved 50 billion BTUs by reducing the amount of purchased steam unnecessarily condensed and lost to drainage. At a site in China, a project helped reduce electricity consumption, and therefore carbon dioxide emissions.