Ashland Inc. wants to be known as the foundation for good chemicals. It is the leading company for specialty chemicals in the world according to the company’s website, ashland.com. Founded in 1924 as Ashland Refining Company in Ashland, Kentucky, the company’s products and services have changed, but the overall vision remains one centered around building relationships between people and chemicals.
The list of products made can be found on ashland.com. They include adhesives and glues sold under names like Aroset, Arofene, Isogrip and Flexcryl. Water treatment chemicals manufactured by Ashland include products used in boilers and by waste water treatment plants. The inventory of specialty chemicals is made up of names such as AquaCat, a product used in personal care products, Aquasorb, a cellulose gum used in food products, and Combizell, an ingredient in paints and coatings used by builders and construction companies.
The ashland.com site allows visitors to keep up with the company’s growth, progress and statistics like those proudly showing sales in 2011 over $6.5 billion and Ashland’s status as a Fortune 500 and S&P member. Thousands of employees work for the industry leader as chemists, engineers, customer service and sales representatives, or other positions in over 100 offices found all over the world. The historical timeline reveals international expansion took place in 2010 with the opening of a new plant in Nanjing, China. Over the decades, Ashland has purchased and acquired a number of entities like Valvoline and Unocal and, as of 2012, serviced customers through four company divisions: Specialty Ingredients, Water Technologies, Performance Materials and Consumer Markets.
