The Urethane Blog
Everchem Updates
VOLUME XXI
September 14, 2023
Everchem’s exclusive Closers Only Club is reserved for only the highest caliber brass-baller salesmen in the chemical industry. Watch the hype video and be introduced to the top of the league: — read more
March 12, 2024
Tempur Sealy Provides Update on Mattress Firm Acquisition
Mar. 12, 2024 4:30 PM ETTempur Sealy International, Inc. (TPX)
– Expects FTC to complete its review by the end of the second quarter
– Continues to expect the transaction to close in mid to late 2024
– Further solidifies key supplier relationships to maintain Mattress Firm’s position as a leading multi-branded retailer
LEXINGTON, Ky., March 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Tempur Sealy International, Inc. (TPX) (NYSE: TPX, “Company” or “Tempur Sealy”) today provided an update with respect to the Company’s acquisition of Mattress Firm Group Inc. (“Mattress Firm”). On May 9, 2023, Tempur Sealy signed a definitive agreement to acquire Mattress Firm, the largest mattress specialty retailer in the U.S. The Company continues to work with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to advance the transaction, and now expects that the FTC will complete its review by the end of the second quarter. Consistent with previous expectations, the Company continues to expect the transaction to close in mid to late 2024.
Tempur Sealy and Mattress Firm continue to make joint progress in planning for post-closing, including solidifying Mattress Firm’s key supplier relationships ahead of the expected closing. Since announcing the acquisition, Tempur Sealy has executed post-closing supply agreements with six (6) other mattress manufacturers, including Purple Innovation, Inc. These contracts are consistent with the Company’s plan for Mattress Firm to continue as a multi-branded retailer.
Tempur Sealy Chairman and CEO Scott Thompson commented, “Since announcing the acquisition in May, Tempur Sealy has signed post-closing supply agreements with numerous existing Mattress Firm suppliers, as well as a new supply agreement with a manufacturer not currently supplying Mattress Firm. We have engaged a critical mass of suppliers to provide a robust and diverse offering of high quality bedding products to Mattress Firm customers. These developments are consistent with our plan and expectation that Mattress Firm will continue as a multi-branded retailer post-closing. We look forward to working with quality suppliers and the Mattress Firm organization to facilitate continued innovation and improve the sleep of consumers.”
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements that may be characterized as “forward-looking” within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Such statements might include information concerning one or more of the Company’s plans, guidance, objectives, goals, strategies, and other information that is not historical information. When used in this release, the words “will,” “targets,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “plans,” “proposed,” “intends,” and variations of such words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to the Company’s expectations regarding the announced Mattress Firm acquisition including the related regulatory approval process, expectations regarding post-closing supply agreements, future performance, cost synergies, integration of acquired companies with our business, personnel, the impact of the anticipated acquisition on the Company’s brands, products, customer base, results of operations, or financial position and the ability of the Company to close the acquisition including on the timeline indicated. Any forward-looking statements contained herein are based upon current expectations and beliefs and various assumptions. There can be no assurance that the Company will realize these expectations or that these beliefs will prove correct.
Numerous factors, many of which are beyond the Company’s control, could cause actual results to differ materially from any that may be expressed herein as forward-looking statements. These potential risks include risks associated with receipt of regulatory approvals and satisfaction of closing conditions prior to consummation of the acquisition; Mattress Firm’s ongoing operations; the ability to successfully integrate Mattress Firm into Tempur Sealy’s operations and realize synergies from the transaction; the possibility that the expected benefits of the acquisition are not realized when expected or at all; general economic, financial and industry conditions, particularly conditions relating to the financial performance and related credit issues present in the retail sector, as well as consumer confidence and the availability of consumer financing; the impact of the macroeconomic environment in both the U.S. and internationally on Mattress Firm and the Company; uncertainties arising from national and global events; industry competition; the effects of consolidation of retailers on revenues and costs; and consumer acceptance and changes in demand for Mattress Firm’s and the Company’s products and the factors discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. There may be other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made.
About Tempur Sealy International, Inc.
Tempur Sealy is committed to improving the sleep of more people, every night, all around the world. As a leading designer, manufacturer, distributor and retailer of bedding products worldwide, we know how crucial a good night of sleep is to overall health and wellness. Utilizing over a century of knowledge and industry-leading innovation, we deliver award-winning products that provide breakthrough sleep solutions to consumers in over 100 countries.
Our highly recognized brands include Tempur-Pedic®, Sealy® and Stearns & Foster® and our popular non-branded offerings consist of value-focused private label and OEM products. At Tempur Sealy we understand the importance of meeting our customers wherever and however they want to shop and have developed a powerful omni-channel retail strategy. Our products allow for complementary merchandising strategies and are sold through third-party retailers, our over 750 Company-owned stores worldwide and our e-commerce channels. With the range of our offerings and variety of purchasing options, we are dedicated to continuing to turn our mission to improve the sleep of more people, every night, all around the world into a reality.
Importantly, we are committed to carrying out our global responsibility to protect the environment and the communities in which we operate. As part of that commitment, we have established the goal of achieving carbon neutrality for our global wholly owned operations by 2040.
Tempur Sealy Investor Relations Contact
Aubrey Moore
Investor Relations
Tempur Sealy International, Inc.
800-805-3635
Investor.relations@tempursealy.com
March 11, 2024
German chemical company increase operations in Costa Rica
Published on Monday, March 11, 2024 By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The German-headquartered Brenntag, a chemical and ingredients distribution firm opened its Finance Shared Services Center in Costa Rica to provide financial and accounting support for its Americas operations.
The company, known as Quimicos Holanda S.A, has been operating in Costa Rica since 1978 with the Shared Services Center (SSC) located in the Global Park Industrial Zone in Heredia Province.
“We are very proud to be inaugurating our Americas Shared Services Center in Latin America. We’ve chosen Costa Rica for its strategic geographical location and quality professional employees,” said Mónica González HR Manager. “Our arrival to this country is the result of a multi-year plan launched to start a business center to support our regional operations in the Americas.”
The multinational is now hiring for its new Finance Shared Services Center for processes such as procurement, sales recording and collection, and corporate financial information documentation and reporting. New hires must have language fluency equivalent to an English level of B1 to C1, a French level of B2 and a Spanish level of B2.
Brenntag offers benefits, including incentive programs and continuous education. Those interested can apply at the firm career’s website.
Brenntag has a global team of more than 17,500 employees who deliver a unique portfolio of industrial and specialty chemicals and ingredients combined with customized application, marketing and supply chain solutions worldwide. The company operates a network of more than 600 sites in 72 countries.
In 2022, Brenntag generated sales of around 19.4 billion EUR. The company shares have been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2010, and in the DAX since September 2021. In addition, the Brenntag SE shares are listed in the DAX 50 ESG and DAX ESG Target.
Brenntag is one of many international firms hiring in Costa Rica. Last week, the California-headquartered digital technology firm, Movate, announced the expansion of its operations in the country.
Costa Rica’s unemployment remains at 7.9%, according to the National Employment Survey. Data recorded from Nov. 2023 to Jan. 2024 shows more than 183,000 people without registered jobs. Of these, 104,000 are men, making up 56% of the unemployed people in the country.
https://amcostarica.com/German%20chemical%20increase%20operations%20in%20Costa%20Rica%20031124.html
March 5, 2024
As China Builds Yugos, EVs May Be The New Edsels
by Tyler Durden
Friday, Mar 01, 2024 – 07:00 PM
Authored by Duggan Flanakin via RealClear Wire,
The year 1957 is memorable for at least two historic launches. The launch by the Soviet Socialist Union of the Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, prompted the U.S. to create the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the very next year.
Eleven years later, Neil Armstrong stepped out of Apollo 11 and famously proclaimed, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Barely three years later, Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan announced the end of the manned space flight experiment: “We shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”
Many believe that the Challenger launch failure in 1986, with teacher Christa McAuliffe one of the seven dead, and the disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, in which another seven astronauts died, ended the U.S. dream of manned space flight.
Former NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory systems engineer Mark Adler spilled the beans in 2015. “The bottom-line answer is that it was … way too expensive. The shuttle never met its promise for low-cost access to space.” [Well, it was a government program!]
Cost-cutting and bureaucratic overkill were behind the Challenger (whose politically correct O-rings failed) and Columbia disasters. As chief NASA historian Bill Barry told Newsweek, “People realized that [Columbia] was a lot more risky than generally thought [mostly] because of [design] compromises … due to cutbacks in the budget [emphasis added].“
The other historic 1957 launch was Ford Motor Company’s much-heralded Edsel. Ten years in the making, at a development cost of $250 million ($2.78 billion in 2024 dollars), Ford dealers saw thousands lining up to buy the new dream car that September, but by yearend monthly sales had fallen by a third.
Two years later, Ford ceased production of the Edsel and revamped its production lines to build compact cars. According to Time reporter Lily Rothman, “As it turned out, the Edsel was a classic case of the wrong car for the wrong market at the wrong time.”
Ford had relied on market research showing that within a decade half of U.S. families could buy then-popular medium-priced vehicles. Further studies led Ford to design “the smart car for the younger executive or professional family on its way up.”
To Ford’s sad surprise, by 1957 the lust for medium-priced cars was usurped by a new boom in the compact field, an area the Edsel research had overlooked completely, said Rothman.
Much as with the space program, the federal government has spent huge sums subsidizing the construction and purchase of electric vehicles, including 18-wheelers, airplanes, and tanks. All of this has been driven, ostensibly, by the perceived threat posed by the plant food carbon dioxide.
Much as with the Edsel, the electric vehicles that European, American, and other Western governments have been subsidizing are “the wrong car for the wrong market at the wrong time.”
Around the planet, individuals, automakers, and even policy advisors are waking up to this gross miscalculation.
Meanwhile, the Chinese, who long ago cornered the market on the primary raw materials and technologies needed for producing EVs in quantity, stand to be the primary sellers of vehicles Western governments have mandated that the hoi polloi purchase.
The largest Chinese automaker, Biyadi (BYD), uses the slogan “Build Your Dream” to lure buyers into even greater reliance on Chinese technology that will erase tens of thousands of American jobs.
BYD sells battery-electric vehicles in China for US$26,000. BYD makes its own batteries, semiconductors, and seal upholstery, and its nearly 30,000 patents owned or filed puts BYD light years ahead of any Western automaker.
The only brakes on China destroying the world auto market are tariffs and other import restrictions – or ending the EV mandates. But the tariffs would likely be passed onto customers, forcing Americans to pay double if Washington forces Chinese EVs down their throats.
And, as noted, without the tariffs, Ford, General Motors, and every other non-Chinese automaker could quickly be forced into bankruptcy. The United Auto Workers know this and hedged their bets for 2024 by throwing money in both directions. Western automakers, joining Toyota, have already pulled back from their EV production commitments.
Ford, which has been losing $60,000 – more than the selling price – on every EV it sells, saw sales of its Lightning F-150 fall 46% in third quarter 2023. Mercedes downsized its EV sales projections by 2030 by 50% and announced it will update its petrol-fueled fleet engines into the next decade. Now Ford has halted all shipments of the Lightning F-150.
Rivian, too, has fallen on hard times, laying off 10% of its workforce, signaling a significant decline in demand. With prices starting at $70,000 for its pickup and $75,000 for its SUV, the sales downturn led to a corporate loss of $1.52 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.
Slackening demand for EVs has even led to entire mines shutting down as the supply of rare-earth minerals now exceeds demand. Albemarle announced it was deferring spending on a planned $1.3 billion plant in North Carolina. The price of lithium has shrunk by 90%, and the price of nickel has been cut in half. As a result, a nickel mine in New Caledonia recently suspended operations.
In the UK, auto dealers are offering discounts of up to 25% on EVs sitting idle on their lots. The Lords Committee says British drivers are “giving the cold shoulder” to the electric transition despite dramatic drops in finance rates for EVs in an effort to boost flagging sales. Non-fleet EV purchases in the UK fell by 25% from the prior year, with yet another reason being much higher auto insurance rates.
The obvious ability of China to dominate the EV market, coupled with increasing public resistance to EV mandates, has put pressure on the European Union and its member states. A year ago, the EU took a baby step backward, agreeing to allow sales and registration of internal combustion engine vehicles after the 2035 deadline if they operate only on carbon-neutral fuels.
In the U.S., President Biden had until very recently doubled down on his EV demands, ignoring the concerns of automakers, auto unions, and the auto buying public. Just a week ago, the EPA indicated it was “considering” delaying EV mandates beyond 2030, an election-year concession that could quickly be reversed.
A 2023 Gallup poll showed that only 16% of Americans with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 either own or are “seriously” considering purchasing an electric vehicle. The most likely EV buyer is a Democrat who lives in a Pacific Coast state, but only 28% of U.S. Democrats and 25% on the West Coast either own or are “seriously” considering an EV.
As Mark Knopfler’s Romeo said to Juliet, “the timing was all wrong,” perhaps the only real flaw with the current EV mandates is that the supply chain – especially in the West – is just not ready for prime time.
But in another few years, things could change. After all, the privately funded Odysseus Moon lander just became the first new U.S. presence on the lunar surface in 55 years.
On the other hand, unless the West cedes EV manufacturing to China, the EV may soon become so unpopular it will go the way of the Edsel.
Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst at the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow who writes on a wide variety of p
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/china-builds-yugos-evs-may-be-new-edsels
March 3, 2024
Univar Solutions Acquires Valley Solvents & Chemicals, Expanding North America Distribution Network and Market Expertise in Energy, Industrial, and Environmental Services
News provided by Univar Solutions LLC
01 Mar, 2024, 12:00 ET
Acquisition strengthens the Company’s local chemical distribution and custom blending capabilities and waste management services in the growing Texas, Gulf Coast, and northern Mexico regions
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., March 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Univar Solutions LLC (“Univar Solutions” or the “Company”), a leading global solutions provider to users of specialty ingredients and chemicals, today announced the acquisition of Valley Solvents & Chemicals Company and certain of its affiliates (“Valley Solvents”), a long-time distributor of solvents and inorganics and provider of waste management services in the Texas and Gulf Coast region. The acquisition expands the Company’s local chemical distribution network and valued-added services across its Chemical Distribution division, while strengthening environmental services capabilities for its ChemCare business under its Services division.
Univar Solutions Acquires Valley Solvents & Chemicals, Expanding North America Distribution Network
Valley Solvents is a key regional chemical distributor that has served the Texas and Gulf Coast region for over 72 years with a full range of chemical products and services, from delivery to disposal. Valley Solvents services more than 1,000 customers with an extensive bulk and packaged product portfolio, custom blending, waste management, and a specialty support focus in northern Mexico.
“We are committed to increasing our solvents and inorganics footprint to help our suppliers and customers grow their businesses,” said president and chief executive officer David Jukes. “The acquisition of Valley Solvents allows us to strengthen our North America Chemical Distribution division and enhance our environmental services capabilities in a growing market. With the integration of Valley Solvents’ operations, we believe we are well positioned to capitalize on opportunities with their strong local packaged business as well as in Energy and Industrial markets that have proven resilient throughout market cycles.”
Jim Holcomb, divisional president of Chemical Distribution for Univar Solutions, added: “The Valley Solvents’ team brings new customers and deep market expertise to the Univar Solutions platform. I’m excited to find new ways to bring greater individualized support and value-added products, such as custom solvent blending, to our customers in an increasingly critical area of North America.”
“Valley Solvents’ waste management services are a natural fit with our existing environmental programs and services offered through our ChemCare business, which support customers’ ability to achieve their sustainability objectives,” said Nick Alexos, chief financial officer and divisional president of Services for Univar Solutions. “Our focus on customer needs is an important part of our longstanding Growing Together strategy to be easy to do business with, as well as to optimize customer relationships and service.”
“I am so proud of the business our team has helped build over many decades, and we are excited to have found a partner in Univar Solutions that shares many of our values and aspirations. Becoming part of the largest chemical distributor in the United States is an exciting moment for the company and helps ensure continued success and innovation for our customers, suppliers, and employees,” said Bill Davis, president of Valley Solvents. “I am thrilled our legacy of service excellence, quality, and teamwork will continue to be part of Univar Solutions’ future.”
About Univar Solutions
Univar Solutions is a leading global specialty chemical and ingredient distributor representing a premier portfolio from the world’s leading producers. With the industry’s largest private transportation fleet and technical sales force, unparalleled logistics know-how, deep market and regulatory knowledge, formulation and recipe development, and leading digital tools, the Company is well-positioned to offer tailored solutions and value-added services to a wide range of markets, industries, and applications. While fulfilling its purpose to help keep communities healthy, fed, clean and safe, Univar Solutions is committed to helping customers and suppliers innovate and focus on Growing Together. Learn more at www.univarsolutions.com.
About Valley Solvents
Valley Solvents is a highly regarded regional chemical distributor headquartered in South Texas. Since 1952, the family-owned company has distributed an extensive portfolio of industrial solvents and chemicals, and provided waste management and other services responsibly, safely, securely, and on time to more than 1,000 customers across Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and northern Mexico. Learn more about www.valleysolvents.com.
March 1, 2024
Now running at $0.535/lb
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