Vertellus, the world’s leading producer of pyridine and pyridine derivative chemicals, has announced that it has purchased Pentagon Chemicals (Holdings) UK Ltd., a leading manufacturer of fine and specialty chemicals used in the life sciences industry.
The acquisition significantly expands Vertellus’ manufacturing presence in the agrochemical and pharmaceutical sectors and positions Vertellus to complement its current chemistries with UK-based Pentagon’s strong capabilities inphosgenation, chlorination, Grignard and sodium dispersion, among others.
Vertellus’ US-based CEO Rich Preziotti agreed to be interviewed for the Chemicals Northwest “Big Interview” feature.
Tell us about your background and how you reached your current position
I have been CEO of Vertellus since December 2007. I worked with the current owners, Wind Point Partners (a middle market private equity firm based in Chicago), to acquire the company and became CEO after the acquisition closed.
Prior to Vertellus I spent close to 17 years working for AlliedSignal which later became Honeywell. My entire career there was in the Specialty Materials Sector – I had many roles across multiple functions (sales and marketing, finance, business development, etc.), with the bulk of my time there as a General Manager. For the last six years that I was there I ran Honeywell’s $1.2B Specialty Chemical portfolio including the Fluorochemicals business.
What skills do you bring to the job?
Close to 25 years of experience in the Chemicals industry, strong business acumen and process orientation learned through my experience at Honeywell. Experience managing global businesses across North America, Europe and Asia – close to 60% of Vertellus revenue is outside of the US. Experience across a multitude of end markets and customer sets including Crop Protection, Nutrition, pharmaceuticals, Plastics and CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants and Elastomers), Personal and Consumer Care , etc. Above all the biggest attribute that I impart on Vertellus and its employees is leadership.
What is your view of the major challenges facing your company?
The overriding challenge that we have as a company – which is shared by many – is to deliver sustainable growth. We strive to do this organically through new product development, market development, global growth of our products, etc. We also pursue acquisitions that support our growth strategies with complementary products and chemistries – Pentagon fit our acquisition criteria on a number of fronts. Vertellus is a supplier to the Life Science Industry with a focus on manufacturers of Crop Protection Chemicals.
We supply building block chemicals – such as pyridine, picolines and their derivatives (we are the largest manufacturer with the most diverse portfolio of products based on pyridine chemistry), complex intermediates as well as processing aids used by Crop Protection Chemical manufacturers. Pentagon also serves this market segment through its fine chemicals contract manufacturing business which manufacturers a number of active ingredients including herbicides and insecticides and has excellent customer relationships with the major western Ag companies – as do we.
We feel that our scale and scope of resources combined with Pentagon’s assets and chemistry capability will enable the combined company to grow faster. We also recently announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the Sodium Borohydride business owned by The Dow Chemical Company. That business is the global leader in sodium borohydride chemistry used as processing aids in fine chemical production as well as in bleaching applications. A substantial portion of the business serves pharmaceutical and agriculture with manufacturing process aids – complementary with process aids manufactured by Vertellus. This acquisition brings us further chemistry capability to serve Life Science customers globally. By the end of 2015 we plan that both acquisitions will be fully integrated into Vertellus and well on their way to helping to accelerate the growth trajectory at Vertellus.
You work in an ever-changing sector – where do you think it will be in five years’ time?
The chemicals industry is a fluid and dynamic sector – not many people would have forecasted the impact that shale gas in north America is having on the relative economics and investment in capacity globally – I believe that the one constant that will be in the industry is continued change. The global competitive landscape will continue to evolve and manufacturers will need to be nimble enough to adapt – to take advantage of the opportunities and to navigate through the threats.
