Letter from the Management Board 3
In order to keep the innovation and sales pipeline well filled, ALTANA continues to make
above-average investments in its research and development activities, representing
7 percent of the company’s total sales. In addition, we made a number of targeted acquisitions
in 2019. We acquired the wire enamels business of Hubergroup India Private Ltd.,
thereby strengthening our ELANTAS division in this growth market. And with the agreed
upon acquisition of the Swiss overprint varnish specialist Schmid Rhyner AG, we con-
tinue to strategically expand our ACTEGA division.
BYK-Gardner – the testing and measuring instrument specialist within the ALTANA
Group – acquired, among other things, refinish color matching and formulation software
and can now offer its customers a complete solution from a single source. BYK-Gardner
is thus making targeted use of the market trend toward digitalization. This is one of the
reasons why the ALTANA Group’s first online stores went live in 2019, not only at
ACTEGA but also at BYK-Gardner.
We are also making headway in the digital transformation in many other areas of our
company. Above all, we are creating an infrastructure that will enable us to be successful
in the digital age. For instance, BYK is investing 15 million euros alone in an innovative
high throughput screening facility in Wesel. With it, tests can be carried out with enormous
speed and efficiency at the highest level of quality.
In order to facilitate future growth, we pushed ahead with the expansion of our sites and
production capacities in all regions of the world in 2019. In April, a new integrated
BYK site opened in Shanghai, and in June, a new ACTEGA innovation center went into
operation in Grevenbroich. Currently ALTANA is significantly expanding the BYK site in
Gonzales, Texas, and the ACTEGA site in Bremen, Germany. And expansion projects are
also underway in Deventer in the Netherlands and Tongling in China.
In all our efforts to increase our capacities and develop our sites worldwide, we also keep
a close eye on ecological aspects and, above all, the safety of our employees. As a
result, we were able to significantly reduce the number of accidents in our company worldwide
in the past fiscal year as well. At the same time, we succeeded in further reducing