Sherwin-Williams Acquires Mautz Paint - Chemical Outlook - Independent industry news, analysis and business information for chemicals makers and users

CLEVELAND--Nov. 8, 2001--The Sherwin-Williams Company announced today that it has acquired the primary assets of Mautz Paint Company of Madison, Wisconsin for an undisclosed price. Mautz Paint Company was founded in 1922 and is a well-respected manufacturer, distributor and seller of paint and paint-related products. Mautz Paint operates stores in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana, which sell architectural coatings under the Mautz brand name to professional painters, contractors, property managers, homebuilders and do-it-yourself customers.

The stores will continue to operate under the Mautz name and sell Mautz branded products.

Christopher M. Connor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Sherwin-Williams Company, said, ``We are pleased to welcome the Mautz stores, employees and customers to our Paint Stores Segment as Mautz has been a well recognized paint company in the Midwest for many decades. This acquisition will strengthen our store base in the Midwest and enhance the products and services we will be able to provide existing and new customers in that market.''

Bernhard F. (``Biff'') Mautz, III, Chairman of the Board, Mautz Paint Company, said, ``Sherwin-Williams shares Mautz's values and our strong commitment to quality. Sherwin-Williams will allow the Mautz paint brand to continue in the tradition that was started by my grandfather and which I have tried my best to continue. I thank our many friends, customers and employees who have supported Mautz for nearly 80 years and I am confident they will continue to be well served by Sherwin-Williams in the future.''

DALLAS, Nov. 2 -- As part of the company's ongoing performance and process improvement efforts, Celanese Chemicals, the chemicals business of Celanese AG, has announced it will shut down its 85,000 ton capacity VAM unit in Edmonton, Canada by the first quarter of 2002.

BRIDGEWATER, Mass.--Nov. 2, 2001--Chase Corporation today announced that it has concluded the purchase of certain assets of Tapecoat, a Division of TC Manufacturing Co., Inc. of Evanston, Illinois. Tapecoat is a provider of protective coatings for the transportation, marine and geo-synthetics industries and for underground oil, gas and water pipelines. Tapecoat is expected to report sales of about $9 million for 2001. The company recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 19 -- Rohm and Haas Company today said that an unexpected power outage damaged production equipment at its Deer Park, Texas, methyl methacrylate (MMA) facility and caused the company to temporarily reduce its supply of that raw material. The company said it expects to restore production within the week and return to full supply levels within 8 weeks.

ST. PAUL, Minn.- -Aug. 20, 2002--Ecolab Inc. announced that, effective immediately, Douglas M. Baker, Jr. has been promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer. In this position, all business units will report to him. Baker previously served as President - Institutional Sector, and was responsible for the Institutional, Kay and Textile Care businesses. He has held previous leadership positions with Ecolab's Institutional, Kay and European operations.

FAIRFAX, Virginia (August 20, 2002) - webMethods, a provider of integration software, has launched two new solution suites designed to enable global organizations to upgrade and expand current EDI-based operations by leveraging the webMethods integration platform to gain end-to-end, enterprise integration for automated business processes.

Slovnaft is a refinery and petrochemical company based in Bratislava in the Slovak Republic. Since being privatized in 1992, the formerly state-run company has worked aggressively to modernize and adopt Western business practices, including creating a series of subsidiaries and launching a Strategic Partnership with MOL, one of Hungary’s biggest corporations, in 2000.

BASEL, Switzerland--Aug. 21, 2002--Ciba Specialty Chemicals: Second quarter of 2002 outpaces the second quarter of 2001; Proactive measures pay off; Net income up in Swiss francs, despite strong adverse currency effect; Net debt down 46 percent, very strong free cash flow; Outlook 2002: Higher sales and EBITDA in local currencies and higher net income in CHF expected.

FOSTER CITY, California (November 5, 2001) - Argonaut Technologies has formed a new consortium comprised of two major pharmaceutical and specialty chemical companies with the aim of developing a state-of-the-art, multi-channel synthesizer for chemical process optimization. Joining in the collaboration are Pfizer and ICI.

HAMILTON, Bermuda--Nov. 5, 2001--Foster Wheeler Ltd. announced that its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Nigeria have been awarded a $20 million, front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract, by Chevron Nigeria Ltd (CNL) for a gas-to-liquids (GTL) project.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (November 6, 2001) - Rohm and Haas, a specialty materials company, has launched an e-commerce solution for its business in Latin America LatinRohmHaas. The solution has been developed and hosted by Citibank e-Business, a unit of Citigroup, a global financial services company.

London, U.K. - November 06, 2001-Aspen Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: AZPN) today announced it is strengthening its senior management ranks with the appointment of Gérard Simon as Senior Vice President of Sales for Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA). Before joining AspenTech, Simon served as Executive Vice President and COO of Evolutionary Technologies International, a leading data-integration software company. In his new position at AspenTech, Simon will assume direct responsibility for the sales and business support organisation in the EMEA region.