Lanxess to Increase R&D by 10%

Specialty chemicals manufacturer Lanxess AG has announced plans to increase its research and development budget. Speaking at the company’s Innovation Day on June 5, Board of Management member Werner Breuers stated “innovation is an essential prerequisite if the company is to achieve sustainable long-term success, especially in these difficult economic times. That’s why we’ve increased this year’s investment budget to around 110 million euros, up 10 per cent on 2008.”

Innovation Day, says Lanxess, forms part of a campaign focusing on the company’s research and development. The group has completed 110 research and development projects in the past year alone, and reports a further 100 currently in the pipelines. At present more than 450 employees are involved in such activities worldwide – a figure 11 per cent higher than in 2007 and set to rise, Lanxess adds. The company’s research and developments are concentrated in Europe, mainly in Germany, France, Belgium and Italy, where almost 350 employees are based.

Lanxess notes that the number of new patents granted to it quadrupled between 2006 and 2008, and it currently holds around 6,300 patents in total. The top priority for innovations, the company says, is their cost-effectiveness. “Our aim is to translate all innovations and product enhancements into marketable products as quickly as possible. We are planning to have 80 per cent of our current R&D projects ready for the market within two years,” explained Breuers.