Millennium Inorganic Chemicals

Summary

Millennium Inorganic Chemicals has restructured its organization from one that is regional in focus to one that takes a truly global perspective. Key to this has been creating a culture focused on sharing best practices across the organization. Taking out unnecessary costs and driving up Economic Value Added (EVA) have also been key goals, which support its parent company's approach to profitable global growth.

Introduction

Heaquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, USA, Millennium Inorganic Chemicals is the world's second largest provider of titanium dioxide, used as a white pigment in coatings, paints, plastics, paper, rubber and other applications. It is also the largest merchant seller of titanium tetrachloride, which is used as the raw material in titanium metal production and in other manufacturing processes.

With more than 3800 employees, the company has eight manufacturing plants – two in the US, France and Brazil, and one each in Australia and the UK. It also has 17 sales and marketing locations in the three global regions of North America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

Millennium Inorganic Chemicals is the largest manufacturing company of US-headquartered Millennium Chemicals Inc, the other companies being Millennium Speciality Chemicals and Millennium Petrochemicals Inc. The parent company also has a 29.5 per cent ownership of Equistar Chemicals and a 26 per cent ownership of Suburban Propanethe.

Millennium Chemicals Inc has over 4400 employees and achieved net sales of over $3 billion in 1997 and reported an Economic Value Added (EVA) figure of $104 million. As this case study will explain, improving EVA has been central to the corporate change, and indeed cultural change, efforts within the group.

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