SI purchases Albemarle’s Orangeburg Plant

New signs outside the former Albemarle Corp. plant in Orangeburg carry the name of its new owner: SI Group. The Schenectady, N.Y.-based company makes chemical intermediates, specialty resins and solutions.

SI Group said information will be available about the sale on Tuesday, but the companies said in April that SI Group would be purchasing some Albemarle assets, including the Orangeburg plant’s antioxidants, ibuprofen and propofol businesses and a plant in Jinshan, China. In addition, applications and technical support capabilities in Shanghai and Baton Rouge, La., were to be included in the transaction.

SI Group has said it is buying the assets for growth, not consolidation. The deal expands SI Group’s antioxidants business and will position the company as one of the top three global suppliers of ibuprofen, according to an SI Group release.

This is the largest deal in SI Group’s history.

The Orangeburg plant sits on a 300-acre site on Cannon Bridge Road. It is the primary U.S. maker of ibuprofen, the active ingredient in pain relievers such as Motrin, Advil and Nuprin.

Wannamaker Chemical Company was started on the site in 1937 by Dr. T. Elliott Wannamaker. Its first products were aniline dyes. Early in World War II, the government asked him to switch to explosives, particularly one called “Petral.”

Wannamaker sold the company in 1953 to the Ethyl Fuel Corporation. In 1994, Ethyl spun off the plant in Orangeburg and others as Albemarle Corp.

The Cannon Bridge Road company currently employs about 322, according to the Orangeburg County Development Commission website.

SI Group’s roots go back to the Schenectady Varnish Company, which was established in 1906. The family-owned company employs more than 2,700 people, with a local presence in 11 countries. It focuses on rubber resins, antioxidants, fuels and lubricants, plastic additives, industrial resins, adhesive resins, surfactants, engineering plastics, and pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals.