Solvay

Solvay SA
legal form	Public company (Belgium)
ISIN	BE0003470755
founding	1863
Seat	Brussels , Belgium
management	Ilham Kadri (CEO)
Number of employees	24,500 (full-time equivalent)
sales	10.3 billion euros
Branch	chemistry
Website	www.solvay.de
	As of May 15, 2019

Solvay is a multinational group with international groups of chemical companies . It employs around 24,500 people in 40 countries and is one of the 10 largest chemical companies in the world. The origin lies in the place Couillet , about 50 km south of Brussels . The German subsidiary Solvay GmbH has its headquarters in Hanover .

Soda patents and first plant in 1863

The Solvay brothers on a plaque commemorating the company's 50th anniversary (1913)

Rheinberg, the Solvay factory

Solvay in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe

Logo until 2013
Current logo

Fluorine rubber Tecnoflon of Solvay Solexis, 200 g

The first plant was founded in 1863 by the brothers Alfred and Ernest Solvay in Charleroi , Belgium, near Brussels. While Alfred was more responsible for the economic aspects, his brother Ernest was more of a chemist and philanthropist . He developed the Solvay process (also ammonia -Soda method), which was named after him and in 1865 patent maturity reached.

In the first few years, the young company was constantly on the verge of bankruptcy , because production was much more expensive than expected. In order to be able to operate it profitably, further experiments were necessary. The chemical process was perfected in 1872, but large debts were incurred. Solvay could not prevail against the process developed by Nicolas Leblanc in 1790 for the extraction of sodium carbonate . The father was worried about his sons, but Ernest wrote to him: "To secure the future, I have to make sacrifices today." The company failed. However, the entrepreneur Solvay added shareholders and capital in a new attempt and was able to enforce his procedure.

When the process was refined to an inexpensive mass production , the brothers issued licenses and from 1880 onwards they built further plants in England , France (1873 in Dombasle-sur-Meurthe , 1896 in Salin-de-Giraud ), the USA , Germany (1880 in Wyhlen , 1883 in Bernburg (Saale) ) and Austria and in 1906 in Rheinberg / Ossenberg . In 1921 the Swiss soda factory was bought by the United Swiss Rhine Saltworks .

By 1900 Solvay accounted for 95 percent of global soda production, and today there are around 70 factories around the world that use the process. The Solvay brothers' soda production method has remained essentially unchanged to this day.

Ernest Solvay brought the famous Solvay Conferences into being in 1911 . Funds from the Solvay company also supported the “National Aid Committee”, which was founded by Belgian industrialists and bankers towards the end of the First World War .

The original company supported - especially in the person of Ernest Solvay - numerous social and educational projects and was one of the first in Europe to introduce the eight-hour day . Other sciences such as sociology and physical chemistry were also promoted through the establishment of institutes at the University of Brussels , for which Ernest was particularly committed. In addition, three research institutes in Brussels were financed from the proceeds because the patron wanted to give back part of his wealth to mankind .

The Solvay Group today

The Solvay brothers' soda production method has remained essentially unchanged to this day. Over the decades, however, the product range has expanded to include other basic chemicals, with the growth clearly going back to Alfred Solvay:

EBITDA by division 2015 (%)

In March 2006 a 50/50 joint venture called SolviCore was agreed with the Belgian company Umicore . The object of the company is the further development, production and marketing of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), the main component of the fuel cell . Regardless of this, both companies will continue their research and development activities in the field of fuel cells separately in their specialty areas of membranes (Solvay) and precious metal catalysts (Umicore). In 2006 the European Commission fined the company € 167.1 million for anti-competitive agreements in the area of bleach products. The pharmaceuticals business was sold to Abbott Laboratories in 2009 for € 4.5 billion . The consolidated annual turnover of the Solvay SA Group in Brussels in 2010 was € 7.1 billion.

In September 2011 the French group Rhodia was taken over for 3.4 billion euros. In 2014, the polyvinyl chloride business was merged into a new joint venture with Ineos .

In 2015, Solvay bought the American group Cytec for 5.5 billion US dollars.

Shareholders

The largest single shareholder is Solvac SA with around 30%, around 80% of which is owned by members of the Solvay founding family (as of December 31, 2015).

Web links

Commons : Solvay - collection of images, videos and audio files

solvay.de (company homepage of Solvay Germany)

solvay.com (company homepage )

Description of this sight on the route of industrial culture

Part of the company history "Deutsche Solvay-Werke. Kaliwerke Bernburg-Solvayhall" is located in the Dessau department of the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives under [2]

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Annual Report 2018 ( [1] )

↑ solvay.com: Solvay in brief (PDF; 4.5 MB), November 2011.

^ Website of the Association of Aargau Museums and Collections

↑ Annual Report 2015 ( English ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , French ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , Dutch ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2 @1@ 2 @1@ 2