Coatings World - July 2008

H.B. Fuller
Sales: $1.4 billion
Sharper
focus after
realignment
Company Facts:

H.B. Fuller Company
1200 Willow Lake Boulevard, P.O. Box 64683
St. Paul, MN 55164-0683 USA
Tel: (651) 236-5104
www.hbfuller.com

• 2007 SALES REVENUE: $1.4 billion (2006 SALES: $1.4 billion)

• KEY PERSONNEL: Michele Volpi, president and CEO; Fabrizio Corrandini, vice president and chief strategy officer; Kevin Gilligan, vice president, Asia Pacific; Timothy Keenan, general counsel and corporate secretary; James McCreary, vice president, interim CFO and controller; Monica Moretti, vice president and chief marketing officer; Jan Muller, vice president, Europe; Jay Scripter, vice president, North America; Ramon Tico, vice president, Latin America.

• MAJOR PRODUCTS: Adhesives, sealants and coatings.

H.B. Fuller Company, a global manufacturer and marketer of adhesives and other specialty chemical products, celebrated its 120^th anniversary in 2007. The company is managed through four regional operating segments—North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. This represents a change in 2007 from the previous structure of having two operating segments—Global Adhesives and Full-Valu/Specialty. The largest business component in each of the regional segments is adhesives. H.B. Fuller posted sales of $1.4 billion in 2007.

Some of the end-market applications its adhesive technolgoies serve include hot melt adhesives for the packaging, hygiene and textiles industries in the consumer goods area. For construction applications it supplies reactive hot melt adhesives for performance wood; cement, water-based and reactive hot melt adhesives for flooring; and reactive hot melt adhesives and sealants for windows.

Each of the four regions manufactures and supplies adhesives products in the assembly, converting, nonwoven and footwear categories. Product lines that were previously managed through the Full-Valu/Specialty segment— Specialty Construction, Insulating Glass, Packaging Solutions, Paints and Consumer—are now reported as business components under the regional segments: Specialty Construction— North America; Insulating Glass— North America and Europe; Packaging Solutions—North America; Paints— Latin America; and Consumer—Asia Pacific.

In 2007 North America accounted for 48% of revenue, Europe 29%, Latin America 15% and Asia Pacific 8%. Moving forward the company says its focus is on the fast growing areas of Eastern Europe, the Middle East,

Africa, China, Brazil, India and Mexico.

During 2007, the company continued with its strategy that began in 2005 to reposition its product lines to focus on more value-added solutions for its customers. Also in November 2007, the company divested its automotive business to its former joint venture partner, EMS Chemie.

Several of H.B. Fuller’s initiatives improved profitability in 2007 include the continuation of the product line repositioning strategy, productivity improvements realized from various Lean Six Sigma projects, and overall cost reductions throughout the organization.

The Lean Six Sigma methodology continues to be a key initiative for the company. The methodology combines two powerful business improvement models—Lean, which focuses on the elimination of waste; and Six Sigma, which is a customer-driven methodology focused on reducing variation in business processes.