Solutia to quit acrylic business
Susan M. Andrews -- Furniture Today, January 26, 2005
ST. LOUIS -- Solutia, producer of Wear-Dated acrylic fibers, says it is getting out of the acrylic business as part of its reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Wear-Dated acrylic is widely used by big U.S. mills and covers a great deal of upholstered furniture in the United States. It is also used in a number of performance fabrics, including Sunbrella.La-Z-Boy Chairman Pat Norton said today he was deeply concerned about the effect on companies like his if they have to back up Solutia's two-year and five-year Wear-Dated warranties themselves, which are longer than most furniture manufacturers' own warranties."My concern is that Solutia acts in an ethical manner," Norton said. "They certainly have the privilege of stopping their business, but they have a responsibility to support the warranties. Millions of pounds of acrylic were purchased on that basis." He said two of La-Z-Boy's top fabric suppliers, Culp and Quaker, are among the largest users of Solutia's acrylic.The good news for the furniture industry is that Solutia has said it plans to support the two-year and five-year Wear-Dated fabric warranties, at least for product that is already in stores, in consumers' homes or on order by consumers. For product that is not already at the consumer level, however, the warranty was eliminated effective yesterday."We absolutely understand and recognize this is not easy for our customers," said Dan Jenkins, Solutia spokesperson, "but at the same time, this is a business that has been losing money since 1999. We've been trying any number of ways to improve the performance of the business, but due to increasing low-cost imports and escalating raw material prices (for petroleum-based products and natural gas), this move is necessary in order to keep the company viable in the long run."We are taking steps to meet our customers needs while trying to minimize our losses while exiting this business," Jenkins said.The company, which was spun off of the former Monsanto company in 1997, was saddled with what Jenkins called "a large number of liabilities related to Monsanto's old chemical business, and that was the main reason we filed Chapter 11 (in December 2003) — in an effort to get relief from some of those liabilities."The company will continue its other businesses, including carpet, which is not acrylic-based. The discontinuation of the acrylic business will affect about 250 employees and about 200 contract workers at the company's plant in Alabama.
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Solutia exits acrylics
Feb 13, 2005
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