Specialty Chemicals Distributor Safic-Alcan Reorganizes Executive Management
Safic-Alcan, an international distributor of specialty chemicals, has reorganized its management, effective February 1st. 2016. Philippe Combette has been appointed CEO. In this position, he succeeds to Martial Lecat who remains CEO of Safinca, the holding of the Group, while continuing to head up the mergers and acquisitions of Safic-Alcan. Jean-Michel Guyon is named General Manager while holding his current responsibilities as CFO.
The group said that the management reorganization was needed following the strong organic and acquisition growth that allowed Safic-Alcan to grab important market shares in Central and Eastern Europe and to establish in the United States in 2015. The company also said that it strengthened its leadership position as the European leader for the rubber industry whilst pursuing its diversification strategy initiated early 2000s mainly in the businesses of plastics, coatings and adhesives, cosmetics and pharmacy.
Moreover, the leveraged buy-out (LBO) of January 2015 allowed the Management and the employees to take majority stakes of the Company supported by minority financial shareholders with long-term view: Euromezzanine, Sagard and Société Générale.
Prior to his new appointment, Philippe Combette was General Manager of Safic-Alcan and Member of the Board since 2006. He was in charge of all business activities and operations for the Performance Products Division worldwide.
Philippe Combette made most of his career at Safic-Alcan, first as sales engineer, beginning 1988, then as Director of the Polymers and Chemicals Department (1997 to 2002) before becoming Group Development Director from 2002 to 2006.
Jean-Michel Guyon was Chief Financial Officer and Member of the Board of Safic-Alcan since 2007. Previous experiences include PWC and Renault, as financial controller, Financial and Administrative Manager at Franciaflex and CFO at Micel, an electronic isolating product and composites distributor.
Martial Lecat joined Safic-Alcan in 1988 as Commercial and Development Director until 1997 then as Director of the Specialty Chemicals Department and Member of the Board of Directors from 1997 until 2005. Martial Lecat has a strong background in the chemical industry where he occupied various Sales Manager positions between 1975 and 1985.
Safic-Alcan, a French multinational distributor of specialty chemicals headquartered in Paris-La Défense (France), develops and provides a large range of polymers, materials and additives for the rubber, coatings, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries. The Group is present in all major countries of the European Union, as well as in Turkey, and China with on-going strategic development in Eastern European countries and the United Sates. In 2015, Safic-Alcan posted nearly €465 million of revenues pro forma.
