Evonik Announces Major Restructuring: 260-Person Pharmaceutical Facility to Close, Layoffs Expected!

Evonik, the German specialty chemicals giant, officially announced on October 11 that its coatings and adhesive resins business and healthcare business will undergo major restructuring. The restructuring aims to divest non-core businesses to enhance growth potential and market competitiveness in core areas.

Specifically, Evonik will focus its resources on the two core growth areas of liquid polybutadiene (mainly used in adhesives, sealants and tire additives) and specialty acrylic resins (serving the medical and packaging industries) in the Coatings and adhesive Resins business. At the same time, the existing polyolefin business (annual sales of approximately €100 million) will be integrated into the C4 business unit and is planned to be sold as part of the C4 business. In addition, Evonik has decided to sell its polyester business for coatings and adhesives applications, which employs around 330 people worldwide and has its main production sites in Witten, Germany and Shanghai, China, to a new buyer.

In the healthcare business, Evonik focuses on high-growth areas such as lipids for mRNA and gene therapy, drug delivery systems and cell culture components. Despite the solid performance of Evonik's amino acids and ketoacids business in recent years, with annual sales of around EUR 100 million, the company has decided to close its ketoacids manufacturing site for pharmaceutical use in Hanau, Germany, by the end of 2025, a move that will affect around 260 employees. However, given the huge potential in the ketones and medicinal amino acids business at Hamm in France and Wuming in China, Evonik is actively evaluating strategic options such as a joint venture or sale in order to find the best solution.

It is worth noting that Evonik has previously announced its innovation strategy, emphasizing that it will increase investment in research and development around the three core areas of biobased solutions, energy transition and circular economy to promote the company's green transformation and deepen its commitment to sustainable development. The company expects this strategy to help Evonik achieve additional sales growth of 1.5 billion euros between 2023 and 2032.

As a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals, Evonik operates in more than 100 countries and regions. In fiscal 2023, Evonik generated sales of 15.3 billion euros and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 1.66 billion euros. In the Asia Pacific region, Evonik has sales of €3.16 billion, more than 5,000 employees and more than 50 production sites, demonstrating its leading position in the global specialty chemicals market.