« Successfully implementing a strategy of sustainable and profitable growth »

Solvay has posted record figures in terms of sales and profitability for the past four consecutive years, demonstrating the value of its strategic choices. The Group is shaping the future, implementing ambitious expansion projects to fuel sustainable and profitable growth.

SOLVAY is an international Group with headquarters in Brussels which employs more than 28,000 people worldwide. In 2007, its consolidated sales amounted to EUR 9.6 billion, generated by its three sectors of activity: Chemicals, Plastics and Pharmaceuticals.

The Chemicals sector includes the production of Soda ash – an activity that was the initial raison d’être of the Group upon its foundation by Ernest Solvay in 1863. Since then, Solvay has selectively expanded its product portfolio: it also holds strong leadership positions in caustic soda, hydrogen peroxide and Fluor chemicals and is steadily developing related higher value specialties for complex applications. Recently announced projects illustrate the Group’s innovation capabilities as well as its geographic expansion strategy: in Thailand for instance, Solvay is to implement ground-breaking proprietary technologies in a hydrogen peroxide megaplant and in an Epicerol® industrial unit which will produce epichlorohydrin with natural glycerin.

Expansion into the world’s most dynamic economies also characterizes Solvay’s Plastics sector: the Group is building a world-class vinyls production unit in Russia, which will complement the leadership positions it has built up in South East Asia, Latin America and Europe. In India, Solvay is inaugurating a new manufacturing unit for one of its high value added plastics specialties, Polyetheretherketone (PEEK). Solvay’s plastics specialties embody the Group’s product leadership and strong R&D, with one of the world’s broadest offerings of high and ultra high performance materials, which it manufactures on three continents – North America, Asia, Europe – and markets globally. Vinyls, in turn, are a shining example of the Group’s ability to stay at the forefront of competitiveness - through concentration in large production units and vertical integration.

Reducing the cyclicality of results and dependence on energy prices was the motivation behind Solvay’s decision to grow its Pharmaceutical sector, after the oil crises of the 1970s. Today, the size of these activities is comparable to that of its two other sectors, but Solvay is striving for further expansion to build the next Solvay Pharmaceuticals, with an annual turnover of EUR 3.2 billion by 2010. In pharmaceuticals, the company seeks to fulfill carefully selected, unmet medical needs in cardiometabolic and neuroscience. 75% of the group’s R&D budget is devoted to Solvay Pharmaceuticals, which is also pursuing an active strategy of research and marketing partnerships. Like the other sectors, its is benefiting from the rapid growth of emerging markets, which generate nearly one fifth of Solvay’s pharmaceuticals sales.

Solvay is geared toward growth, but the Group is convinced that enterprise citizenship is the key to sustainable growth. To Solvay, this entails reconciling, in its activities, respect for the environment with long term economic and social development.