Care & Surface Specialties

(now aligned with Superabsorber: Consumer Specialties)

The Business Unit Care & Surface Specialties, established on January 1, 2006, is one of the world's leading providers of high quality raw materials, additives and active ingredients for a wide range of different applications in the fields of skin and hair care as well as washing and special cleaning agents. Furthermore the Business Unit produces additives, process auxiliaries and intermediate products, based on modified silicones and organic oligomers.

The Business Unit comes off the Care Specialties Business Unit, which generated sales of € 599 million in 2005.

The unit is divided into five business lines:

Personal Care
The Personal Care business line supplies high-quality raw materials, additives and active ingredients for body care products. Among other products they are used in cremes and lotions, bath additives, sunscreen, deodorant products or as hair conditioners. The business line comprises the Home Care product line, which provides a special range of products for household, car care and industrial applications.

Textile Care
The Textile Care business line holds a leading global position in the fields of bleaching agents such as sodium perborate and sodium percarbonate and cationic tensides for fabric softeners.

STOKO^®Skin Care
The STOKO®Skin Care business line stands for protection, care and cleaning products for stressed skin. Customers from different sectors of industry, such as the car, steel and chemicals industries, look to STOKO^® for a complete range of skin protection products.

Polyurethane Additives
The Polyurethane Additives business line is the global leader in the provision of additives for the manufacture of polyurethane foams. Polyurethane foams are used, for example, in upholstered furniture and mattresses, car seats and the interior trim, lining and paneling of cars as well as for insulation both of refrigerators and in the construction industry.

Industrial Specialties
The Industrial Specialties business line produces and markets, among other products, special silicones used in rubber, metal and plastic handling, in the paper and textiles industries or in the construction and agricultural.