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Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 45
Group Basics
Organization and Legal Structure
The ALTANA Group is a global supplier of specialized chemical
products and related services for different branches
of industry and application fields. In the 2021 fiscal year, the
Group’s 66 consolidated subsidiaries and associated companies
achieved sales of around € 2.7 billion. The ALTANA
Group employs more than 6,700 people.
ALTANA’s activities are grouped into four divisions,
each of which has its own management and organizational
structure. The divisions and the Group companies assigned
to them are decentralized and empowered to largely make
market-, location-, and product-related decisions themselves.
The divisions are active worldwide and have their own
production sites and sales offices as well as research and
development laboratories in the regional markets that are
important for them. In addition to the four operating divisions,
there are holding companies in which Group management
activities and internal services are bundled. Furthermore,
activities for the cross-divisional development of new
business areas are undertaken at this level.
ALTANA AG, headquartered in Wesel, is a stock corporation
in accordance with German law. As the ALTANA
Group’s managing company, it assumes strategic control of
the Group and the divisions. ALTANA AG is led by the Management
Board, whose members act on their own responsibility
and are solely committed to the interests of the
company. The Management Board’s activities are monitored
by the Supervisory Board, whose members also advise
the Management Board. More information on ALTANA AG’s
management and control system is provided in the Declaration
on Corporate Governance in the Group Management
Report.
All of the shares in ALTANA AG are held by SKion
GmbH, Bad Homburg v. d. H., Germany, an investment company
owned by Susanne Klatten.
The decentralized organizational structure combines the individual
operating units’ ability to act swiftly and cater to
the needs of markets and customers with the advantages of
a financially strong and internationally active group. The
organization is designed to adapt flexibly to changed market
conditions and a volatile economic environment. In addition,
new activities can be integrated into the organization in
a short time.
Business Activity and Divisions
As a globally active specialty chemicals group, ALTANA
focuses its core activities on sophisticated markets and customers
who need individual solutions.
A significant share of the ALTANA Group’s product
and service portfolio encompasses input materials for the production
of coatings, printing inks, and plastics. In addition,
ALTANA manufactures printing inks and coatings for special
applications, products for 3D printing, insulating resins for
the electrical and electronics industries, sealants for packaging,
and measuring and testing instruments.
Activities of the Divisions
BYK
The BYK division is one of the leading international suppliers
of special-purpose ingredients, so-called additives, used
in coatings and paints, plastics, and other industrial applications.
The division’s products, most of which are used in
only very small amounts, have a decisive influence on the
properties of their customers’ end products or enable customers
to improve their manufacturing and industrial processes.
Wetting and dispersing additives, one of the division’s
main product groups, help improve the even distribution of