Company News
June 1, 2025
Mr. Pauley Joins the Hall of Fame
2 manufacturers, a retailer, a supplier tapped for 2025 Hall of Fame
Vicky Jarrett //Managing Editor//May 29, 2025
HIGH POINT — Four influential industry leaders will be inducted into the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame on Oct. 26 during the fall High Point Market.
Joining the current 139 members of the Hall of Fame are Jeffrey S. Child, president, R.C. Willey Home Furnishings; William A. Hinks, founder and chairman, Furniture Mart USA; Stanley F. Pauley, former CEO and chairman, Carpenter Co.; and Norman Waxman, Norman Waxman Consulting.
“This year’s class of inductees represents the core values of superior accomplishments and enduring excellence by two retailers, a manufacturer and a supplier,” said Satya Tiwari, president of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame Foundation board of directors. “Each has impacted the industry with innovation, and each represents high personal character and ethical standards.”
A seven-member selection committee chose this year’s inductees based on their contributions to the growth and development of the home furnishings industry in the U.S.
Jeffrey S. Child has grown the Top 10 retailer fivefold in his 24-year tenure as president of R.C. Willey Home Furnishings, a Berkshire Hathaway company based in Salt Lake City. He began working in the family business when he was 14 waxing the warehouse floors and then working his way up as a sales associate, buyer and merchandise manager where he developed his great love for furnishings. Child is known for sharing strategies for success not just within his company but also with other retailers.
Under Child’s leadership, the retailer has honed a fully integrated supply chain to enhanced its competitive edge. The retailer of furnishings, appliances, electronics and flooring operates 10 stores and three distribution centers in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and California.
William A. Hinks started selling used furniture in 1977, becoming a serial entrepreneur who provides consumers in rural markets with the access to a wide range of brands typically only found in metropolitan stores. The Top 40 Furniture Mart USA operates in six Midwestern states offering furnishings, flooring and design services supported by an in-stock, rapid delivery network.
With a mission to transform “houses into homes, employees into family and customers into friends,” the three-generation family business based in Sioux Falls, S.D., owns most of its 60 storefront and warehouse properties. The Priority Sales program partners with nine Native American Reservations to provide private funding to tribal members, thereby enabling many to buy furniture for the first time.
Stanley F. Pauley became president of Richmond-based Carpenter Co. seven years after E. Rhodes Carpenter was founded in 1950 as a latex foam distributor. Over the next 60-plus years, he built the company into a global vertically integrated manufacturer of polyurethane foams used for upholstery, bedding, carpet cushioning, furniture and fabrication, and other consumer products.
An electrical engineer by education, Pauley had an unwavering commitment to continuous improvement and creating innovative foam solutions for Carpenter’s customers. He was known for his attention to every detail of the business, always doing things the right way and keeping an eye on reducing waste, promoting sustainability and practicing circularity. The company employs some 7,000 people at its more than 70 production facilities located around the world.
Norman Waxman has been an advisor and mentor to dozens of manufacturers and retailers. His career began in upholstery sales, expanding into executive management positions for Schnadig Corp., Rowe Furniture Corp., Quaker Fabrics and Corson Furniture Inds.
Waxman was an early adopter of merchandising the whole room through correlated groups and developing brands by expanding market share through the export business and engaging with retail customers as partners. He is known for growing talent through executive development based on a foundation of trust as the right way to conduct business, and he is a socially responsible leader and philanthropist.
May 28, 2025
Huntsman to Close European Maleic Plant
Huntsman Completes European Maleic Anhydride Strategic Review
May 28, 2025 5:00am EDT
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) announced today that it has completed the strategic review of its European Maleic Anhydride business. As a result of this review, the Company will close its Maleic Anhydride facility located in Moers, Germany. The closure of the operations at Moers is expected to be complete by the end of the current quarter. In 2024, the European Maleic Anhydride business generated an adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately $10 million. Going forward, the Company intends to serve customers in the European region from its North American facilities located in Pensacola, Florida and Geismar, Louisiana. As a result of the closure of the Moers, Germany facility, Huntsman expects to incur a one-time non-cash asset impairment charge of approximately $75 million during the second quarter of 2025.
About Huntsman:
Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated and specialty chemicals with 2024 revenues of approximately $6 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 60 manufacturing, R&D and operations facilities in approximately 25 countries and employ approximately 6,300 associates within our continuing operations. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company’s website at www.huntsman.com.
May 27, 2025
Stepan Announces Price Hike on Polyester Polyols
Stepan Company Announces Polyol Price Increase for North America effective July 1, 2025
Northfield, IL, May 23, 2025 – Effective July 1, 2025, or as contracts allow, Stepan will increase the price for STEPANPOL® and TERATE® Rigid Polyester Polyols used in the Americas by $0.05 per pound. This increase is necessary due to the continued escalation in raw material costs.
Please contact your Stepan Company sales representative to learn more about the price increase.
May 18, 2025
COIM Acquires Palmer Cashew Nutshell Liquid Site
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 16, 2025
COIM USA Announces Acquisition of Strategic Site in New Boston, Texas
West Deptford, NJ — COIM USA, a leading specialty chemical manufacturer and part of the global COIM Group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of a 20-acre property in New Boston, Texas (Texarkana Region), from Palmer International.
The acquisition includes an existing logistics infrastructure, as well as a new, renewable polyol product line, consisting of materials made principally from rapidly-renewable Cashew Nutshell Liquid (CNSL). This product line will complement COIM’s existing Isoexter line of polyester polyols, allowing them to better serve the market.
COIM also plans to expand operations at the new site, adding 100 million lbs. of capacity for additional product lines by the middle of 2027.
“This acquisition represents a significant milestone in COIM USA’s long-term growth strategy,” said Michelangelo Cavallo, President of COIM USA. He further commented: “The New Boston location broadens our geographic reach, expands our sustainable portfolio, and enhances COIM USA’s ability to serve customers with greater speed, efficiency, and resiliency.”
In summary, the New Boston site will create operational synergies by enhancing COIM USA’s current product portfolio with innovative, sustainable materials. The planned expansion will also deliver geographic efficiencies and operational redundancy, with the goal of ensuring consistent service and supply reliability for customers across North America.
About COIM USA COIM USA is a subsidiary of COIM Group, an international leader in the production of specialty chemicals, including polyesters, polyurethanes, adhesives, and other high-performance materials used in foam, elastomers, packaging, coatings, adhesives, and composites. With a global presence and a
May 15, 2025
Reflections from the Foam Frontier: A Conversation with John Meehan
Recorded: May 2024
Published: May 2025
Location: PFA Conference, St. Petersburg, FL
At the 2024 Polyurethane Foam Association meeting, we sat down for beers and a candid conversation with industry legend John Meehan, who has now retired after more than 60 years in the Urethane business. What followed was a rich tapestry of stories — from the birth of flexible foam to corporate buyouts, mysterious plant fires, and lessons in loyalty that today’s chemical industry would do well to remember.
Summary of the conversation at the bottom. Listen to the interview here:
Read the transcript in full here:
From Hand Mixes to Multinationals
Meehan started his journey in 1960 at Olin Research Labs doing hand mixes, balancing part-time work with school. By 1970, he was formulating rigid and flexible foams for Olin, just as the industry was beginning to take shape.
“We had a $30 million TDI plant — the pilot plants today are bigger than that.”
Back then, Olin was a sprawling industrial force — aluminum, brass, Bible paper, even skis — and Meehan had a front-row seat to its dive into isocyanates and polyols.
The Industry Evolves
The interview charts the transition from conglomerate-dominated foam production to the rise of entrepreneurial foam shops, some run by characters straight out of central casting.
“Chuck Moeller ran a multi-million-dollar operation and spat tobacco juice into a Styrofoam cup at board meetings.”
From dealing with General Tire’s foam division to confronting delinquent customers like Joe DiMaggio’s brother, Meehan’s stories illustrate both the grit and absurdity of business in the chemical trenches.
Then vs. Now: Relationship-Driven Sales
One of Meehan’s recurring themes was the loss of human connection in modern sales.
“In those days, you shook a customer’s hand — and that was the deal. Now, they don’t even answer the phone.”
He describes a time when sales was personal: you knew your customers, their kids’ names, their lunch orders. Today, too often, it’s just price-checking and ghosted emails.
The Vanishing Mentor
Meehan laments the decline of in-house R&D and mentorship, once the bedrock of technical sales and innovation.
“We had a ton of people doing real R&D. Now you can’t even find a pilot machine.”
Companies, Meehan argues, have become too focused on short-term returns, cutting staff and gutting their ability to nurture new talent or develop future technologies.
Is There Hope for Small Companies?
Despite the challenges, Meehan believes companies like Everchem have an opportunity to thrive — precisely because they still value relationships and technical integrity.
“You get spec’d in, and you don’t have to worry about the nickel-and-dime pricing.”
His advice: stay close to the customer, focus on being reliable, and speak the language of the people who actually use the product — not just the procurement departments.
Final Thoughts
Meehan’s reflections are more than nostalgia — they’re a call to rebuild the human side of an industry that too often runs on autopilot.
“Sales and marketing is still the best job in the world — if you do it right.”
As he steps away from the business, we’re left with a deep appreciation for the people, processes, and personalities that built the urethanes world — and a reminder that people still matter.
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