Company Reports - Lake Chemicals & Minerals
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Lake Chemicals & Minerals
Distributing Innovation
Written by John O’Hanlon & Produced by Harrison Butterworth
Steven Cartlidge is an interesting compound - if he does not take exception to that description – an unusual combination of elements. He started out as a research chemist, was bitten by industry while still an undergraduate during three six-month stints, and at the same time acquired an unshakeable dose of internationalism (courtesy of L’Oreal in Paris). So as soon as he had completed his MSc at Birkbeck he took himself off to Zurich for four years where he gained his PhD. “I wanted to see the world and did it via education!”
Zurich opened Steven’s eyes to European industry, he says. After three years back in the UK at BP’s research group at Sunbury on Thames, he came back into manufacturing industry and, based in Germany, headed up the new research department in Grace Davison, a division of chemicals conglomerate W R Grace: “That was where I learned how to create products in the lab, take them through to development and move them into something manufacturers could use.”
UNDERSTANDING SPECIALTY
There was still an ingredient missing from the formula though. He was by now well known in specialised scientific circles but had little commercial experience. On the basis of a reputation for persuasiveness, he allowed himself to be moved into a sales job at Grace Davison and then to Construction Products, working out of Cambridge Massachusetts but covering the world as global product manager, then global manufacturing director of the waterproofing division of GCP. “WR Grace was and still is a company that really understands speciality sales,” he says.
After a while Cartlidge realised he was having a great time but never seeing his family. That was the catalyst for the foundation of Lake: “It was then I decided to go into sales and distribution of technical products.”
Well, Lake has been a very successful business, growing steadily over the seven years since it started trading in 2003 by selling highly innovative and specialised chemicals and ingredients to UK manufacturers from coatings to pharmaceuticals and health foods to rubber articles. However his international experience showed him that the days of purely national supplier networks were over. “It was clear to me that suppliers were looking for distribution out of one house, and reducing the costs of managing multiple sourcing. More of the multinationals were looking to rationalise for their distribution across Europe, and that was when I realised that if this was going to be successful we would have to work with other companies. A company in the UK would not be successful in attracting suppliers for distribution agreement across the whole of Europe unless it had the right partners.”
THE LEL ALLIANCE
While setting up Lake Cartlidge was fortunate enough to come across two likeminded entrepreneurs, Carl-Hugo Erbslöh in Germany and Hervé Lavollée of the French company Lavollée SA were coming to similar conclusions within their own markets. The result was the LEL Group (Lake, Erbslöh and Lavollée), set up in 1999 and today with additional partners in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey and with combined sales across Europe of around 300 million euros per annum.
It is a strategic alliance between privately owned companies that link the R&D and manufacture of specialist products with applications in industry. It allows a company like Lake to be much more than a distributor – it is, he explains, an active technical participant enabling connections between innovation and manufacturing that might never have come about otherwise. “We employ business managers with a thorough technical education in the ‘University of Industrial Life ’ who are knowledgeable in the characteristics and unique selling points of the products of our suppliers, and we sell them to the customer base in our geography.”
Lake like many distributors does some ‘confectioning’ of products, he continues, but the R&D investment goes on within its suppliers on the one side who create the raw materials and its customers on the other side. “We are consultants to the other sides of the triangle. We enhance the profitability of our customers either by using our materials to reduce their costs or to increase the unique and compelling sales proposition for their products. And we go back to our suppliers and keep them abreast of dynamics in the market place.”
MARRYING PRODUCTS WITH USE
A good example of how Lake challenges the status quo is found in the energy industry. One of its suppliers, Cortec, manufactures corrosion inhibitors that can be used to prolong the life of co-generation plants.
“When these plants are taken off stream (they are turned on and off daily), the frequent temperature change from operating to ambient makes them rust. The rust reduces the efficiency and makes them burn more gas.
“One of the major projects we have had for the last three years is working with one of the major UK energy companies to ensure the efficiency stays the same as when the plant was commissioned. The positive environmental impact of this is massive.”
The product from Cortec has been around for years and so has the problem, he points out. Lake’s role has been to marry the product to the application.
Shipments are measured in tonnes and tens of tonnes rather than thousands. Lake and its partners are not in the business of supplying commodity chemicals.
Rather it looks for disruptive and game changing technologies like the HallStar Company’s Solastay, a speciality ester that is added in very small quantities to suncreams - or will be in the 2011 season.
“It’s a UV filter photostabiliser that enhances the useful life of the lotion. This technology is being incorporated into sun protection lotions at all the major players globally. It is revolutionising formulations.”
Perhaps the most topical on the supply side is the innovative microbials company Osprey Biotechnic, which manufactures a stabilised pseudomonas. These are friendly bacteria that eat oil, like the oil that threatens the U.S. “The temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico, the availability of oxygen and the residence time are all beneficial thus allowing the bacteria to grow vigorously; eat the food and make water and carbon dioxide as the waste products,” says Cartlidge. Once the oil is gone, the bacteria die of starvation.
Under the headings ecoLake and nanoLake, Steven Cartlidge and his business managers are helping manufacturers adopt disruptive technologies they might once have seen as a threat. The recession has been a positive driver for Lake which has revised its growth target to £20 million turnover by 2020 and 20 percent year-on-year growth. In 2009 turnover was £5 million. This year it will be about £6.5 million.
“Traditional companies tend to stick to the tried and tested business model, the recession has challenged that and allowed companies like Lake to add value in innovative ways. It is forcing customers to talk to us!”
Zurich opened Steven’s eyes to European industry, he says. After three years back in the UK at BP’s research group at Sunbury on Thames, he came back into manufacturing industry and, based in Germany, headed up the new research department in Grace Davison, a division of chemicals conglomerate W R Grace: “That was where I learned how to create products in the lab, take them through to development and move them into something manufacturers could use.”
UNDERSTANDING SPECIALTY
There was still an ingredient missing from the formula though. He was by now well known in specialised scientific circles but had little commercial experience. On the basis of a reputation for persuasiveness, he allowed himself to be moved into a sales job at Grace Davison and then to Construction Products, working out of Cambridge Massachusetts but covering the world as global product manager, then global manufacturing director of the waterproofing division of GCP. “WR Grace was and still is a company that really understands speciality sales,” he says.
After a while Cartlidge realised he was having a great time but never seeing his family. That was the catalyst for the foundation of Lake: “It was then I decided to go into sales and distribution of technical products.”
Well, Lake has been a very successful business, growing steadily over the seven years since it started trading in 2003 by selling highly innovative and specialised chemicals and ingredients to UK manufacturers from coatings to pharmaceuticals and health foods to rubber articles. However his international experience showed him that the days of purely national supplier networks were over. “It was clear to me that suppliers were looking for distribution out of one house, and reducing the costs of managing multiple sourcing. More of the multinationals were looking to rationalise for their distribution across Europe, and that was when I realised that if this was going to be successful we would have to work with other companies. A company in the UK would not be successful in attracting suppliers for distribution agreement across the whole of Europe unless it had the right partners.”
THE LEL ALLIANCE
While setting up Lake Cartlidge was fortunate enough to come across two likeminded entrepreneurs, Carl-Hugo Erbslöh in Germany and Hervé Lavollée of the French company Lavollée SA were coming to similar conclusions within their own markets. The result was the LEL Group (Lake, Erbslöh and Lavollée), set up in 1999 and today with additional partners in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Turkey and with combined sales across Europe of around 300 million euros per annum.
It is a strategic alliance between privately owned companies that link the R&D and manufacture of specialist products with applications in industry. It allows a company like Lake to be much more than a distributor – it is, he explains, an active technical participant enabling connections between innovation and manufacturing that might never have come about otherwise. “We employ business managers with a thorough technical education in the ‘University of Industrial Life ’ who are knowledgeable in the characteristics and unique selling points of the products of our suppliers, and we sell them to the customer base in our geography.”
Lake like many distributors does some ‘confectioning’ of products, he continues, but the R&D investment goes on within its suppliers on the one side who create the raw materials and its customers on the other side. “We are consultants to the other sides of the triangle. We enhance the profitability of our customers either by using our materials to reduce their costs or to increase the unique and compelling sales proposition for their products. And we go back to our suppliers and keep them abreast of dynamics in the market place.”
MARRYING PRODUCTS WITH USE
A good example of how Lake challenges the status quo is found in the energy industry. One of its suppliers, Cortec, manufactures corrosion inhibitors that can be used to prolong the life of co-generation plants.
“When these plants are taken off stream (they are turned on and off daily), the frequent temperature change from operating to ambient makes them rust. The rust reduces the efficiency and makes them burn more gas.
“One of the major projects we have had for the last three years is working with one of the major UK energy companies to ensure the efficiency stays the same as when the plant was commissioned. The positive environmental impact of this is massive.”
The product from Cortec has been around for years and so has the problem, he points out. Lake’s role has been to marry the product to the application.
Shipments are measured in tonnes and tens of tonnes rather than thousands. Lake and its partners are not in the business of supplying commodity chemicals.
Rather it looks for disruptive and game changing technologies like the HallStar Company’s Solastay, a speciality ester that is added in very small quantities to suncreams - or will be in the 2011 season.
“It’s a UV filter photostabiliser that enhances the useful life of the lotion. This technology is being incorporated into sun protection lotions at all the major players globally. It is revolutionising formulations.”
Perhaps the most topical on the supply side is the innovative microbials company Osprey Biotechnic, which manufactures a stabilised pseudomonas. These are friendly bacteria that eat oil, like the oil that threatens the U.S. “The temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico, the availability of oxygen and the residence time are all beneficial thus allowing the bacteria to grow vigorously; eat the food and make water and carbon dioxide as the waste products,” says Cartlidge. Once the oil is gone, the bacteria die of starvation.
Under the headings ecoLake and nanoLake, Steven Cartlidge and his business managers are helping manufacturers adopt disruptive technologies they might once have seen as a threat. The recession has been a positive driver for Lake which has revised its growth target to £20 million turnover by 2020 and 20 percent year-on-year growth. In 2009 turnover was £5 million. This year it will be about £6.5 million.
“Traditional companies tend to stick to the tried and tested business model, the recession has challenged that and allowed companies like Lake to add value in innovative ways. It is forcing customers to talk to us!”
