DuPont acquire Herberts

Citation

Bean, J. (1999), "DuPont acquire Herberts", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 28 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.1999.12928baa.002

DuPont acquire Herberts

DuPont acquire Herberts

Keywords Acquistion, Coatings, DuPont, Herberts

Moving from that shrinking band of small independent coatings manufacturers, such as Trimite, to multinational giants, we see that the renowned automotive coatings manufacturer Herberts of Germany has now been sold to DuPont for $1.89 billion. This was only two months after the original parent company, Hoechst, sold Herberts to the US investment firm KKR.

This latest development would create the world's largest coatings company (pending government approvals) and the leading automotive coatings supplier with combined sales of $3.7billion and employing 14,000.

In typical corporate-speak, Joe Miller, senior vice president of DuPont said: "This action is consistent with DuPont's intent to establish strong global positions in its core business through selective investments that capitalise on strong cost positions and technology synergies. Herberts is an ideal fit in this strategy."

DuPont is the leader in automotive coatings for the OEM and refinishing markets in both North and South America. Herberts is Europe's leading supplier of automotive coatings.

President of DuPont Automotive, Louis Savelli, believes that combining the resources of the two organisations will lead to faster development of new technologies and markets in developing regions in particular.

Jürgen Ritz, chief executive officer of Herberts, says that the company also anticipates additional growth opportunities in non-automotive sectors, especially through its powder coatings technology.