Relocation of Lanxess Butyl Research Centre Begins

Lanxess has begun moving its Canada based butyl research and development centre into a new premises attached to the University of Western Ontario. The relocation to the city of London, which will see more than 100 staff from Lanxess’s operations in nearby Sarnia transfer to the new site, was announced in mid-2008 and gives the chemical company the opportunity to gain easier access to scientists at the university.

“This move is extremely important for us,” said Ron Commander, head of the Butyl Rubber Business Unit for Lanxess International. “It’s the only R&D centre for butyl in the world, and it’s concentrated here in London.

“We could have gone anywhere in the world,” he added. “We did a strategic study and this place came on top…we wanted to be here to be able to work with the professors. Plus, we also have access to a very large intellectual core of people, and that’s a real positive for us.”

The London research facility will support the company’s rubber manufacturing sites in Belgium, Canada and Singapore and have global responsibility for the research and development of butyl and butyl-like elastomers.