Mr. Hawkins: We are a group which is based in what's known as the effect chemicals business, the effect chemicals "arena" as some people call it. So we're not dedicated to any one particular product stream. We have a number of different operations around the world and we would see our future as being in other areas, as well as the ones we're in now. The term, "effect chemicals" basically refers to the interface between the chemicals market and the rest of industry and, to some extent, the retail market as well. We take chemical raw materials and turn them into products that other people find useful, products that non-chemists find useful. These are products which are sold because of what they do rather than what they are. For example, we make colors. They're sold because of how bright they are, how red they are, or how well they behave in ultraviolet rays, or in different heat situations on packaging, not because they are made up of a certain type of chemical intermediate which, to be quite honest, our customers are not interested in. As you can imagine, there are a number of business sectors that feed off the chemicals industry around the world. We aim to be in those which are neither on the one hand so capital intensive and high risk that they could change our profile altogether (pharmaceuticals, for example) nor in the retail area. This is because what we are good at is business-to-business marketing. We don't claim to have any particular expertise in the business to consumer area.
TWST: But at the same time, from what you just said, it seems like your potential customer base is still quite large.
Mr. Hawkins: Oh, it's absolutely huge. You can look at our biggest operation, which is in the color market I was talking about before where we basically make famous brand colors. We make Coca Cola's red, Cadbury's yellow, Schweppes tonic, and the yellow that goes onto M&M wrappers. Our biggest concentration of customers is in the ink industry; it's quite a consolidated industry and, therefore, there are relatively few - perhaps only a hundred or so - customers. Naturally, we're trying to expand that by offering competitive products into other fields like plastics and paints. Conversely, if you look, for example, at our other main business, which is in specialist coatings for the architectural market, i.e., for the refurbishment of buildings, there are tens of thousands of customers, so it does vary depending on which area is being served. But you're right, it is a very diverse field.
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