Ashland Profile
Ashland Inc. (Ashland) operates as a global specialty additives and materials company.
The company serves customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including, architectural coatings, construction, energy, food and beverage, nutraceuticals, personal care and pharmaceutical. Ashland serves customers in more than 100 countries.
Segments
The company operates through Life Sciences, Personal Care, Specialty Additives, and Intermediates segments.
Life Sciences segment includes pharmaceuticals, nutrition, nutraceuticals, agricultural chemicals, diagnostic films, and fine chemicals. Pharmaceutical solutions include controlled release polymers, disintegrants, tablet coatings, thickeners, solubilizers and tablet binders. Nutrition solutions include thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers and additives for enhancing mouthfeel, controlling moisture migration, reducing oil uptake and binding structured foods. Nutraceutical solutions include products for weight management, joint comfort, stomach and intestinal health, sports nutrition and general wellness. The nutraceutical business also provides custom formulation, toll processing and particle engineering solutions. Customers include pharmaceutical, food, beverage, nutraceuticals and supplements manufacturers, hospitals and radiologists and industrial manufacturers.
Personal Care segment includes biofunctionals, microbial protectants (preservatives), skin care, sun care, oral care, hair care and household solutions. These businesses have a broad range of natural, nature-derived, biodegradable, and high-performance ingredients for customer-driven solutions to help protect, renew, moisturize and revitalize skin and hair, and provide solutions for toothpastes, mouth washes and rinses, denture cleaning and care for teeth. Household supplies nature-derived rheology ingredients, biodegradable surface wetting agents, performance encapsulates, and specialty polymers for household, industrial and institutional cleaning products. Customers include formulators at large multinational branded consumer products companies and smaller, independent boutique companies.
Specialty Additives segment includes rheology and performance-enhancing additives serving the architectural coatings, construction, energy, automotive and various industrial markets. Solutions include coatings additives for architectural paints, finishes and lacquers, cement- and gypsum- based dry mortars, ready-mixed joint compounds, synthetic plasters for commercial and residential construction, and specialty materials for industrial applications. Products include rheology modifiers (cellulosic and associative thickeners), foam control agents, surfactants and wetting agents, pH neutralizers, advanced ceramics used in catalytic converters, and environmental filters, ingredients that aid the manufacturing process of ceramic capacitors, plasma display panels and solar cells, ingredients for textile printing, thermoplastic metals and alloys for welding. Products help improve desired functional outcomes through rheology modification and control, water retention, workability, adhesive strength, binding power, film formation, deposition and suspension and emulsification. Customers include global paint manufacturers, electronics and automotive manufacturers, textile mills, the construction industry and welders.
Intermediates segment includes the production of 1,4 butanediol (BDO) and related derivatives, including n-methylpyrrolidone. These products are used as chemical intermediates in the production of engineering polymers and polyurethanes, and as specialty process solvents in a wide array of applications, including electronics, pharmaceuticals, water filtration membranes and more. BDO is also supplied to Life Sciences, Personal Care, and Specialty Additives for use as a raw material.
Life Sciences
Life Sciences segment is a leading supplier of excipients and tablet coating systems to the pharmaceutical, nutrition and nutraceutical industries. Excipients include a comprehensive range of polymers for use as tablet binders, super disintegrants, sustained-release agents and drug solubilizers, as well as a variety of coating formulations for immediate, delayed, and sustained release applications. Core products include cellulosics and vinyl pyrrolidone polymers which are used primarily in oral solid dosage drug formulations. The portfolio also includes branded and proprietary nutraceutical ingredients and expertise in nutraceutical formulation, particle engineering and contract manufacturing. Its nutrition portfolio provides functional benefits in areas, such as thickening, texture control, thermal gelation, structure enhancement, water binding, clarification and stabilization. Its core products include cellulose gums and vinyl pyrrolidone polymers which are used in a wide range of offerings for bakery, beverage, dairy, desserts, meat products, pet food, prepared foods, sauces and savory products.
Life Sciences segment operates throughout the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific. It has 19 manufacturing and lab facilities in nine countries which serve its various end markets. It has manufacturing facilities and labs in Wilmington, Delaware; Calvert City, Kentucky; Kearny, and Totowa, New Jersey; Columbus, Ohio; Fiskeville, Rhode Island; Texas City, Texas; and Ogden, Utah within the United States; Cabreuva and Sao Paolo, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Dusseldorf, Germany; Hyderabad, India; Mullingar, Ireland; Jaumave (2 manufacturing facilities) and Mexico City, Mexico; Bangkok, Thailand; and Istanbul, Turkey.
Life Science segment markets and distributes its products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific.
Personal Care
The Personal Care portfolio of oral care products delivers active ingredients in toothpaste and mouthwashes; provides bioadhesive functionality for dentures; delivers flavor, texture and other functional properties; and provides product binding to ensure form and function throughout product lifecycle.
The Personal Care portfolio of hair care products includes advanced styling polymers, fixatives, conditioning polymers, emulsifiers, preservatives, rheology modifiers and biofunctional actives.
The Personal Care portfolio of ingredients and solutions for skin care, sun care, and cosmetics focuses on natural and sustainable solutions. Ashland's Personal Care business includes biofunctional actives, preservatives, and specialty polymers to provide functionality, such as water resistance and rheology. Ashland's natural ingredients include a wide range of cellulose, guar, and cassia derivatives; unique active ingredients derived from botanical sources using exclusive Ashland technologies, such as Zeta Fraction and PSR technology; emollients based on natural chemistries; encapsulation technology derived from alginates; and efficacious preservative blends inspired by nature.
The Personal Care portfolio of products and technologies is used in many types of cleaning and fragrance applications, including fabric care, home care and dishwashing. Personal Care segment products are used in a variety of applications for viscosity enhancement, particle suspension, rheology modification, stabilization and fragrance enhancement.
Personal Care segment operates throughout the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific. It has 15 manufacturing and lab facilities in nine countries which serve its various end markets and participates in one joint venture. It has manufacturing facilities and labs in Freetown, Massachusetts; Chatham, New Jersey; Ossining, New York; Merry Hill, North Carolina; Summerville, South Carolina; Kenedy, Texas; and Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin within the United States; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Sophia Antipolis, France; Hamburg, Germany; Mumbai, India; Mexico City, Mexico; Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands and Poole, the United Kingdom.
Personal Care segment markets and distributes its products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific.
Specialty Additives
Specialty Additives segment offers industry-leading products, technologies and resources for solving formulation and product-performance challenges. Using synthetic and semisynthetic polymers derived from polyester and polyurethane-based adhesives, and plant and seed extract, Specialty Additives segment offers comprehensive and innovative solutions for industrial applications.
Key customers include manufacturers of paint, coatings and construction materials; packaging and converting companies; and oilfield service companies.
The areas of expertise include organic and synthetic chemistry, colloid science, rheology, structural analysis and microbiology.
The solutions provide an array of properties, including thickening and rheology control, binding power, film formation, conditioning and deposition, colloid stabilization and suspension.
Specialty Additives segment consists of various end use markets. Many of the products of the end markets are produced in shared manufacturing facilities, to better manage capacity and achieve desired returns.
Specialty Additives segment provides products and services to over 30 industries. Ashland offers a broad spectrum of organo- and water-soluble polymers that are derived from both natural and synthetic resources. Product lines include derivatized cellulose polymers, synthetics, and vinyl pyrrolidone polymers that impart effective functionalities to serve a variety of industrial markets and specialized applications. Many of the products within Specialty Additives function as performance additives that deliver high levels of end-user value in formulated products. In other areas, such as plastics and textiles, Specialty Additives' products function as a processing aid, improving the quality of end products and reducing manufacturing costs.
Specialty Additives segment is a recognized leader in rheology solutions for waterborne architectural paint and coatings. Products include hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), which provides thickening and application properties for interior and exterior paints, and nonionic synthetic associative thickeners (NSATs), which are APEO-free liquid synthetics for high-performance paint and industrial coatings. The Specialty Additives market complements its rheology offering with a broad portfolio of performance foam-control agents, surfactants and wetting agents, dispersants and pH neutralizers.
Specialty Additives segment is a major producer and supplier of cellulose ethers and companion products for the construction industry. These products control properties, such as water retention, open time, workability, adhesion, stabilization, pumping, sag resistance, rheology, strength, appearance and performance in dry-mortar formulations.
Specialty Additives segment is a leading global manufacturer of synthetic- and cellulosic-based products for drilling fluids, oil-well cement slurries, completion and workover fluids, fracturing fluids and production chemicals. Specialty Additives offers the oil and gas industry solutions for drilling, stimulation, completion, cementing and production applications.
Specialty Additives segment operates throughout the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific. It has 11 manufacturing and lab facilities in nine countries which serve its various end markets. Specialty Additives segment has manufacturing facilities and labs in Parlin, New Jersey; and Hopewell, Virginia within the United States and Doel-Beveren, Belgium; Nanjing and Shanghai, China; Alizay, France; Dusseldorf, Germany; Mumbai, India; Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands; Singapore, Singapore; and Newton Aycliffe, the United Kingdom.
Specialty Additives segment markets and distributes its products in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific.
Intermediates
Intermediates segment is a leading producer of BDO and related derivatives, including n-methylpyrrolidone. These products are used as chemical intermediates in the production of engineering polymers and polyurethanes, and as specialty process solvents in a wide array of applications, including electronics, pharmaceuticals, water filtration membranes and more. BDO is also supplied to Life Sciences, Personal Care and Specialty Additives for use as a raw material.
Key customers include Ashland's Life Sciences, Personal Care and Specialty Additives segments, general industrial manufacturers, plastics and polymers producers, pharmaceutical companies, agricultural firms and producers of electronic components and systems.
Intermediates segment has a manufacturing facility in Lima, Ohio, while some derivatives are produced at Life Sciences facilities in Texas City, Texas and Calvert City, Kentucky. Intermediates segment markets and distributes its products in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific.
Environmental Matters
Ashland's Environmental, Health, Safety, Quality and Regulatory Affairs (EHSQ&RA) department has the responsibility to ensure that Ashland's businesses worldwide maintain environmental compliance in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Many of Ashland's products and operations are subject to chemical control laws of the countries in which they are located. These laws include regulation of chemical substances and inventories under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in the United States and the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) regulation in Europe, as well as new cosmetic ingredients filings in China under the Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation (CSAR).
The requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and its state counterparts have a significant impact on the daily operation of Ashland's businesses and, in many cases, on product formulation and other long-term business decisions. Other countries where Ashland operates also have laws and regulations relating to air quality. Ashland's businesses maintain numerous permits and emission control devices pursuant to these clean air laws.
In the United States, Ashland's facilities are subject to RCRA and its regulations governing generators of hazardous waste. Ashland has implemented systems to oversee compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations.
Research and Development
The company's research and development costs were $51 million in 2023.
Seasonality
Ashland's business units typically experience stronger demand during warmer weather months.
History
The company was founded in 1924. It was incorporated in 2016. The company was formerly known as Ashland Inc. and changed its name to Ashland Global Holdings Inc. in September 2016 and then to Ashland Inc. in August 2022.
