Organization

Following an in-depth strategic review, we recently changed our management organization to be more market-focused and further leverage our successful repositioning as a specialty minerals company. The new organization, which came into effect on December 1, 2018 and which will provide the basis for the Group’s segment reporting from 2019 onwards, is organized around two segments, grouping five newly created business areas which have been built around our core markets:

• The Performance Minerals segment brings together three geographic business areas: Europe Middle East Africa (EMEA), Americas and Asia-Pacific (APAC) serving the plastics, paints & coatings, filtration, ceramics, renewable energy and paper & board markets. Performance Minerals includes our former Performance Additives, Filtration, Carbonates, Ceramics, Kaolin and Graphite & Carbons divisions as well as the Bentonite & Perlite Intermediate business unit (part of the former Metallurgy division).
• The High Temperature Materials & Solutions segment regroups two business areas: High Temperature Solutions and Refractory Abrasives & Construction serving the refractory, foundry, metal flow, abrasives and building chemistry markets. High Temperature Materials & Solutions includes our Monolithic Refractories, Aluminates, Fused Minerals divisions as well as our Metalcasting & Absorbents and Steel Casting Fluxes business units (part of the former Metallurgy division).

This simplified organization, with fewer management layers, brings us closer to our customers and allows us to meet their needs in a more effective way.