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Everchem Updates
VOLUME XXI
September 14, 2023
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August 17, 2018
Congressman David McKinley and German Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Boris Ruge visit STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA to discuss economic development in West Virginia
Clarksburg, WV – August 2018 – STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA, Inc., was pleased to host a roundtable discussing economic development in West Virginia on August 15th. Attendees included Christian Martinkat, Chairman of the Executive Commitee of STOCKMEIER Urethanes Group and CEO of STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA, Inc., Melissa Martinkat, Chief of Staff of STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA, Inc., Congressman David Mckinley, German Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Boris Ruge, Governor Jim Justice’s Chief of Staff Mike Hall, West Virginia University President Dr. E Gordon Gee, New Martinsville General Plant Manager Craig Graybill from Covestro LLC, Ulrich Wicke from Prebena, Inc. and various members of the local and state Chamber of Commerce as well as German Trade and Industry representatives from Washington, D.C..
Christian Martinkat said STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA has come to feel at home in the Mountain State:
“The benefit of West Virginia not being a huge state is that it’s a small community. And on the government side, the legislative side, you get to know everybody relatively quickly. I always like to tell people that in West Virginia, if you have an issue and you need government support, you’re usually one phone call away from the governor’s office or any of his deputies to get help and to get something resolved.” Martinkat said
Boris Ruge, German Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission expressed his appreciation of the interest and attention to detail shown by those who participated in the round table discussion.
“For me, coming from the embassy in Washington, it’s always really useful to go out and speak to people at the state and local level,” he said. “What I thought was really helpful about this conversation today was we had the business community here — three German companies represented; we had the Chamber of Commerce; we had the state level; and we had the congressman. That’s really helpful for us, you have to speak with the businesses and then you understand what’s going on.”
As a specialist within the STOCKMEIER Group, STOCKMEIER Urethanes GmbH & Co. was founded in 1991 in Germany as a polyurethane systems house focused on the development and manufacturing of coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers for a wide range of sports and industrial markets. Operating worldwide with ISO 9001 certified production facilities and laboratories in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, STOCKMEIER Urethanes provides customers with consistent global delivery of high quality polyurethane products and services.
August 17, 2018
Congressman David McKinley and German Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Boris Ruge visit STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA to discuss economic development in West Virginia
Clarksburg, WV – August 2018 – STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA, Inc., was pleased to host a roundtable discussing economic development in West Virginia on August 15th. Attendees included Christian Martinkat, Chairman of the Executive Commitee of STOCKMEIER Urethanes Group and CEO of STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA, Inc., Melissa Martinkat, Chief of Staff of STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA, Inc., Congressman David Mckinley, German Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission Boris Ruge, Governor Jim Justice’s Chief of Staff Mike Hall, West Virginia University President Dr. E Gordon Gee, New Martinsville General Plant Manager Craig Graybill from Covestro LLC, Ulrich Wicke from Prebena, Inc. and various members of the local and state Chamber of Commerce as well as German Trade and Industry representatives from Washington, D.C..
Christian Martinkat said STOCKMEIER Urethanes USA has come to feel at home in the Mountain State:
“The benefit of West Virginia not being a huge state is that it’s a small community. And on the government side, the legislative side, you get to know everybody relatively quickly. I always like to tell people that in West Virginia, if you have an issue and you need government support, you’re usually one phone call away from the governor’s office or any of his deputies to get help and to get something resolved.” Martinkat said
Boris Ruge, German Minister and Deputy Chief of Mission expressed his appreciation of the interest and attention to detail shown by those who participated in the round table discussion.
“For me, coming from the embassy in Washington, it’s always really useful to go out and speak to people at the state and local level,” he said. “What I thought was really helpful about this conversation today was we had the business community here — three German companies represented; we had the Chamber of Commerce; we had the state level; and we had the congressman. That’s really helpful for us, you have to speak with the businesses and then you understand what’s going on.”
As a specialist within the STOCKMEIER Group, STOCKMEIER Urethanes GmbH & Co. was founded in 1991 in Germany as a polyurethane systems house focused on the development and manufacturing of coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers for a wide range of sports and industrial markets. Operating worldwide with ISO 9001 certified production facilities and laboratories in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, STOCKMEIER Urethanes provides customers with consistent global delivery of high quality polyurethane products and services.
August 16, 2018
Mattress Firm may get rescued by its biggest supplier
This couple may need a California king if it’s going to get comfy together.
The buyout firm that owns Serta Simmons — the nation’s biggest mattress maker — is actively exploring a takeover bid for Mattress Firm, the nation’s dominant mattress retailer, The Post has learned.
Executives at Advent International are mulling the marriage because Mattress Firm is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy — a collapse that would slam Serta Simmons with massive losses, according to sources close to the situation.
Serta Simmons is Mattress Firm’s biggest supplier. Last year, it shelled out $100 million to launch a five-year marketing partnership with Mattress Firm and its 3,300 stores.
Likewise, if Mattress Firm were to file for bankruptcy, “Serta Simmons has to be in there for $100 million in receivables” that would go unpaid, a source close to the talks said, as Serta Simmons sells $50 million of beds monthly through the retailer.
Mattress Firm dropped Tempur Sealy last year in a contract dispute, and Serta Simmons believed it would be the beneficiary. Instead, “they found out Mattress Firm was poisonous,” the source said.
Mattress Firm’s owner, South Africa-based Steinhoff International, is reeling from an accounting scandal. During the past few weeks, its creditors have taken effective control of Steinhoff’s operations, according to sources.
“The word is they are trying to sell Mattress Firm,” the source said.
Under Steinhoff’s direction, Mattress Firm last year bought rival Sleepy’s for $780 million and quickly got rid of the Sleepy’s name, costing it Northeast customers. A few months ago, Mattress Firm introduced a Sleepy’s bedding line, but the damage was already done, sources said.
To make matters worse, Amazon has begun selling millions of cheaper, Chinese-manufactured beds, even as bed-in-a-box startups led by Casper continue to steal away business.
Steinhoff’s creditors would like to have a new owner backstop Mattress Firm’s losses, now running $200 million a year, a second source said. Steinhoff, which paid $2.6 billion for Mattress Firm in 2016, would likely sell it for not much more than $1 billion including the assumption of debt, the second source said.
Mattress Firm in recent months has lowered prices to gain lost revenue, a move that has squeezed profit margins, sources said. Advent would need to close at least one quarter of Mattress Firm’s stores to get the retail chain profitable, sources said, and that may be hard outside of a bankruptcy.
Besides Advent, private equity firm THL Partners has also expressed interest in buying Mattress Firm, the sources said.
THL in January 2017 bought furniture and mattress retailer Art Van Furniture. Since then, Art Van has acquired two more furniture retailers giving it a combined $1.3 billion in expected revenue.
A sale could be part of a prepackaged Mattress Firm bankruptcy, the sources said. Mattress Firm lenders include both those who loaned money directly to Mattress Firm, and those who are Steinhoff lenders. The two lending groups might need to be on the same page in a sale, the second source said.
Mattress Firm, Advent and THL spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
https://nypost.com/2018/08/15/mattress-firm-may-get-rescued-by-its-biggest-supplier/
August 16, 2018
Mattress Firm may get rescued by its biggest supplier
This couple may need a California king if it’s going to get comfy together.
The buyout firm that owns Serta Simmons — the nation’s biggest mattress maker — is actively exploring a takeover bid for Mattress Firm, the nation’s dominant mattress retailer, The Post has learned.
Executives at Advent International are mulling the marriage because Mattress Firm is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy — a collapse that would slam Serta Simmons with massive losses, according to sources close to the situation.
Serta Simmons is Mattress Firm’s biggest supplier. Last year, it shelled out $100 million to launch a five-year marketing partnership with Mattress Firm and its 3,300 stores.
Likewise, if Mattress Firm were to file for bankruptcy, “Serta Simmons has to be in there for $100 million in receivables” that would go unpaid, a source close to the talks said, as Serta Simmons sells $50 million of beds monthly through the retailer.
Mattress Firm dropped Tempur Sealy last year in a contract dispute, and Serta Simmons believed it would be the beneficiary. Instead, “they found out Mattress Firm was poisonous,” the source said.
Mattress Firm’s owner, South Africa-based Steinhoff International, is reeling from an accounting scandal. During the past few weeks, its creditors have taken effective control of Steinhoff’s operations, according to sources.
“The word is they are trying to sell Mattress Firm,” the source said.
Under Steinhoff’s direction, Mattress Firm last year bought rival Sleepy’s for $780 million and quickly got rid of the Sleepy’s name, costing it Northeast customers. A few months ago, Mattress Firm introduced a Sleepy’s bedding line, but the damage was already done, sources said.
To make matters worse, Amazon has begun selling millions of cheaper, Chinese-manufactured beds, even as bed-in-a-box startups led by Casper continue to steal away business.
Steinhoff’s creditors would like to have a new owner backstop Mattress Firm’s losses, now running $200 million a year, a second source said. Steinhoff, which paid $2.6 billion for Mattress Firm in 2016, would likely sell it for not much more than $1 billion including the assumption of debt, the second source said.
Mattress Firm in recent months has lowered prices to gain lost revenue, a move that has squeezed profit margins, sources said. Advent would need to close at least one quarter of Mattress Firm’s stores to get the retail chain profitable, sources said, and that may be hard outside of a bankruptcy.
Besides Advent, private equity firm THL Partners has also expressed interest in buying Mattress Firm, the sources said.
THL in January 2017 bought furniture and mattress retailer Art Van Furniture. Since then, Art Van has acquired two more furniture retailers giving it a combined $1.3 billion in expected revenue.
A sale could be part of a prepackaged Mattress Firm bankruptcy, the sources said. Mattress Firm lenders include both those who loaned money directly to Mattress Firm, and those who are Steinhoff lenders. The two lending groups might need to be on the same page in a sale, the second source said.
Mattress Firm, Advent and THL spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.
https://nypost.com/2018/08/15/mattress-firm-may-get-rescued-by-its-biggest-supplier/
August 15, 2018
China has new three-year plan to clean up environment, minister says
Li Ganjie says the newly strengthened bureau will set tougher targets, especially for air pollution
The ministry said the country had exceeded its target set in an air pollution action plan in 2013. Last year, average concentrations of PM 10, a fine particle that is harmful to health, were down by 22 per cent – compared to the target of 10 per cent – in more than 330 cities from 2013. In Beijing, the average concentration of PM 2.5, another harmful particle, was reduced to 58 micrograms per cubic metre last year from close to 90 in 2013, although that was still far from the level of 10 micrograms recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Li said that in the new plan until 2020, some goals could be stricter, but he did not give specific targets for major pollutants as there were still under study.
In its five-year plan until 2020, Beijing set a goal of improving the number of days with clean air to 80 per cent, or roughly 292 days per year. However, Li said that was still a difficult target requiring a great deal more effort.
“In general, our air pollution control is still at the mercy of weather. If the weather helps, the smog is low. If the weather is bad, then the smog becomes worse. It takes a lot of time to walk out of this stage and requires us to take much tougher measures, otherwise those goals cannot be achieved,” he said.
China tells regions not to blame others after smog surge in Yangtze River area
Li made a reference to temperature inversion contributing to the latest round of air pollution during this year’s legislative and advisory meetings in Beijing, which started in early March and end this Tuesday. There have been four days of serious air pollution so far during this year’s sessions.
To reduce smog, Beijing has asked cement and steel plants to suspend or curtail production, conducted frequent top-down environmental inspections of local authorities and ordered households in the country’s north to switch from coal to natural gas for heating.
The result were more days with better air last year, but it remains to be seen whether this was from stringent regulation or good weather.
Environmental group Greenpeace said in a note in January that cold fronts in particular helped lower the level of PM 2.5 last winter, a season that usually brought heavy air pollution.
Warmer world is making China’s smog woes even worse
“China’s national air pollution action plan has brought massive reductions in pollution levels and associated health risks, but policies favouring coal and heavy industry are holding back progress. Nationwide, 2017 saw the slowest air quality improvement on record,” Greenpeace campaigner Huang Wei said.
The average PM 2.5 concentration fell just 4.5 per cent nationwide in 2017, the lowest rate since 2013, according to Greenpeace.
Li said smog control was just one part of the leadership’s green campaign, and that the newly strengthened ministry would make a more concerted effort to tackle environmental problems.
The recent government reshuffle saw the environmental ministry – to be renamed the ministry of ecological environment – given regulatory powers that were previously the domain of other departments.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2137666/china-has-new-three-year-plan-clean-environment
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