Lehmann & Voss & Co. in Hamburg and Zipperling Kessler & Co. in Ahrensburg, near Hamburg, have come up with a surprise announcement in the wake of the international plastics trade fair K '95:
In future the two companies are going to cooperate in the field of flame retardants. L&V's managing partner, Dr. Thomsen, says: "We can both look back on a long tradition as independent family businesses, L&V mainly as an importer and a marketer of products that need explanation, ZKC first and foremost in development and production. The companies have no plans for entering into closer capital ties, but will remain independent of each other."
Dr. Wessling, managing partner of Zipperling, endorses this: "In a world of market uncertainties, alliances and joint ventures by major companies, our intention is to create a strategic alliance between two medium-sized enterprises. We aim to harness the two companies' specific strengths for the benefit of the customer and the partnership." These strengths lie in applications-based marketing and access to worldwide source markets in the case of L&V, and in sizeable technologically versatile development and production capacity in the case of ZKC.
Both companies have extensive experience in the field of flame-retardant agents and therefore intend to cooperate in future on the development and production of new flame-retardant systems. L&V will be responsible for basic development of flame-retardant formulations, while ZKC will develop and manufacture suitable formulations for production and use.
This cooperation will apply throughout Europe, with each company concentrating from a sales point of view on the market segments where it sees its traditional strengths. The customers hitherto looked after by ZKC or L&V will remain the responsibility of the respective company. The partners have undertaken to respect each other's existing agreements in full. L&V's Wandsbek production facility for flame retardants is therefore to remain under the management of L&V. The cooperation seeks to ensure a rapid and flexible response in the task of meeting a wide range of market requirements as to flame-retardant effect, standardisation and processability with flame-retardant systems offering optimal cost-effectiveness.
This powerful new partnership is sure to meet with interest from both polymer manufacturers and plastics converters.
December 1995
Dr. Bernhard Weßling (Zipperling Kessler & Co) |
Dr. Jarre (Lehmann & Voss & Co.) |
