Expanding Market Presence in Industrial and Commercial Markets
Building on Leadership Position in Residential Wood Preservatives
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Koppers Performance Chemicals Inc. (PC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koppers Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KOP), an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds, today announced a significant expansion of market share in industrial and commercial wood preservation technology markets. Earlier this year, PC realigned its sales functions into three distinct channels serving residential, industrial, and commercial markets to provide greater leadership, customer focus, and product development for each sector.
Recent regulatory actions in both the United States and Canada have resulted in the phase out of pentachlorophenol (penta), a longstanding oil-borne preservative (never produced by Koppers) that made up approximately 40 percent of the industrial wood preservative market for treating utility poles. Through strategic market engagement, PC assisted treaters with transitioning from penta to either its legacy K-33 CCA water-borne preservative or its newest entry into the oil-borne preservative field, InPro 23 and InPro 50 DCOI, which Koppers began offering in mid-2022. In a few short months, PC has secured approximately $40 million of annualized new industrial business, adding 14 new customers across 18 locations for its CCA and DCOI products.
"Over the past 24 months, we have been diligent in targeting growth and delivering impressive returns in the industrial chemical sector. The market has responded favorably to our strategy, which is indicative of the progress that we have made," said Tommy Kyzer, Vice President, PC Industrial Division.
Meanwhile, in the commercial market, PC has seen annual sales of its fire-retardant products increase from nearly $1 million in 2018 to an estimated $24 million currently, growing from three treated wood plants to 20 locations in North America now producing treated wood with an advanced version of its fire retardant brand FlamePro.
"Looking ahead, we plan to expand into additional locations in 2023 and beyond," added J.R. Virnich, Vice President, PC Commercial Division. "This reflects our expectation of continued market penetration and expansion for FlamePro and our other fire-retardant products."
Doug Fenwick, President, Performance Chemicals, commented, "Building on the legacy of success achieved by our PC segment in the residential market, Koppers has allocated considerable R&D, engineering, and marketing resources toward our industrial and commercial businesses, with very positive results. As always, we plan to maintain a strong customer focus as PC continues to grow within these new markets."
About Koppers
Koppers, with corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an integrated global provider of treated wood products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds. Our products and services are used in a variety of niche applications in a diverse range of end markets, including the railroad, specialty chemical, utility, residential lumber, agriculture, aluminum, steel, rubber, and construction industries. We serve our customers through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia, and Europe. The stock of Koppers Holdings Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "KOP."
For more information, visit: www.koppers.com. Inquiries from the media should be directed to Ms. Jessica Franklin Black at BlackJF@koppers.com or 412-227-2025. Inquiries from the investment community should be directed to Ms. Quynh McGuire at McGuireQT@koppers.com or 412-227-2049.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may include, but are not limited to, statements about sales levels, acquisitions, restructuring, declines in the value of Koppers assets and the effect of any resulting impairment charges, profitability and anticipated expenses and cash outflows. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.
All statements contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and words such as "outlook," "guidance," "forecast," "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "may," "will," "should," "continue," "plan," "potential," "intend," "likely," or other similar words or phrases are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement contained herein, in other press releases, written statements or other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or in Koppers communications and discussions with investors and analysts in the normal course of business through meetings, phone calls and conference calls, regarding future dividends, expectations with respect to sales, earnings, cash flows, operating efficiencies, restructurings, the benefits of acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures or other matters as well as financings and debt reduction, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies.
Many of these risks, uncertainties and contingencies are beyond our control, and may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from anticipated results, performance or achievements. Factors that might affect such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the impact of changes in commodity prices, such as oil and copper, on product margins; general economic and business conditions; disruption in the U.S. and global financial markets; potential difficulties in protecting our intellectual property; the ratings on our debt and our ability to repay or refinance our outstanding indebtedness as it matures; our ability to operate within the limitations of our debt covenants; potential impairment of our goodwill and/or long-lived assets; demand for Koppers goods and services; competitive conditions; interest rate and foreign currency rate fluctuations; availability and costs of key raw materials; unfavorable resolution of claims against us, as well as those discussed more fully elsewhere in this release and in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Koppers, particularly our latest annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent filings by Koppers with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after that date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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