Air Products (NYSE:APD) serves customers in technology, energy, healthcare and industrial markets worldwide with a unique portfolio of products, services and solutions, providing atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials and chemical intermediates. Air Products has built leading positions in key growth markets such as semiconductor materials, refinery hydrogen, home healthcare services, natural gas liquefaction, and advanced coatings and adhesives. The company is recognized for its innovative culture, operational excellence and commitment to safety and the environment and is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability and FTSE4Good Indices. The company has annual revenues of $8.1 billion, operations in over 30 countries, and more than 20,000 employees around the globe.
Air Products was established in 1940 in Detroit, Michigan, on the strength of a simple, but then revolutionary, idea: the "on-site" concept of producing and selling industrial gases, primarily oxygen. At the time, most oxygen was sold as a highly compressed gas product in cylinders that weighed five times more than the gas itself. Air Products proposed building oxygen gas generating facilities adjacent to large-volume users, thereby reducing distribution costs. The concept of piping the gas directly from the generator to the point of use proved sound and technically solvable.
Air Products leased its first oxygen gas generator to a small Detroit steel company in 1941. Shortly thereafter, a second order for a gaseous oxygen generator was received from the Norfolk Navy Yard. World War II diverted the company's attention to the design and manufacture of mobile generators to produce oxygen for use by the military in high-altitude flights. During this period the company built a strong technical organization and established a tradition of response to customer needs that continues today.
The 1950s brought more civilian business and new government and military contracts During the 1960s, the company also expanded its overseas operations. Meanwhile in the late '60s and '70s, the company expanded its business devoted to the design of cryogenic equipment and other process and related engineering services. Air Products was further expanded in the '70s with acquisition of the chemicals and plastics business. The 1980s continued to reflect Air Products' strategy of strengthening its base businesses.
In the 1990s, the company continued to invest globally. After a decade of success in building an environmental and energy systems business, in 1996 Air Products determined that because of fundamental changes in the U.S. solid waste and power markets, its strategy for this business would be very different going forward. The company subsequently sold its landfill gas recovery business; divested its share of its American Ref-Fuel waste-to-energy business; and "bundled" power generation with industrial gases.
Positioned for Growth
In the new millennium Air Products' senior management developed an aggressive, long-term business strategy focused on portfolio management, work process improvement, and growth. The company is now deeply involved in several, company-wide initiatives consistent with this strategy and aimed at delivering profitable growth. They include:
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evaluating all businesses to determine their growth potential and assign them appropriate resources
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planning of acquisitions of businesses that will advance our performance and divestitures of segments in which we are not the high-value provider
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implementing an enterprise resource planning tool to streamline and unify the operations of the company
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organizing globally to strengthen our international operations and performance; and focusing on businesses, processes and systems that will improve our return on capital and earnings growth
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Recent major moves include the divestiture of our polyvinyl alcohol business and most of our U.S. packaged gas business. Both actions have been recognized by investors as prudent and beneficial
Today, Air Products ranks 281st in sales and 276th in total assets among FORTUNE magazine's April 2005 list of the 500 largest corporations in the U.S. Corporate headquarters are at the company's 600-acre campus in eastern Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, near Allentown; European headquarters are at Hersham, near London; and Asian headquarters are in Singapore, with offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Serving a Diversity of Markets
Air Products is one of the world's largest industrial gas producers, supplying a broad range of industrial gases—chiefly oxygen, nitrogen, argon, hydrogen and helium and related equipment for their production, distribution and use—to hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the world. These gases are used in most industries, including food and metal processing, semiconductor manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace and chemical production.
Air Products' $1.9 billion chemicals business includes polymers, polyurethane intermediates and additives, amines, and specialty and epoxy additives used in applications such as adhesives, coatings, polyurethane foams, textiles, herbicides, pesticides, water treatment chemicals, reinforced composites and inks.
Additionally, in October 2002, Air Products entered the U.S. homecare business with the acquisition of American Homecare Supply (AHS), a privately-held corporation ranked among the ten largest U.S. homecare providers of respiratory therapy and home medical equipment. Air Products has been providing products and services to the medical industry for over 50 years. With the AHS acquisition, the company and its affiliates will be providing home medical services to more than 275,000 patients in 14 countries from more than 200 locations. Air Products has also acquired Sanwa Chemical of Japan, broadening our position in epoxy chemicals in Asia.
As international competition continues to intensify, Air Products is well positioned to compete with the best anywhere in the world. In addition to a broad product line and invested presence in more than 30 countries, the company has world-class production and applications technology and a long-standing commitment to safety, efficiency and cost-effectiveness in every facet of its operations. The corporation also has firmly established continuous improvement processes which will yield further productivity gains and even higher levels of customer satisfaction—ensuring a future for Air Products as bright as its past.
