Alfa Aesar's turnaround keeps it focused on success.

Alfa Aesar is a leading international manufacturer, supplier and distributor of fine chemicals, metals and materials. It started as two separate companies; in 1989, Johnson specialty chemicals firm Matthey purchased the Alfa Co. and later merged it with Aesar. However, even though Alfa Aesar is now a leading company, it was barely profitable in the late 1980s and 1990, according to Barry Singelais, director of research and chemicals. "I joined the company in 1990, and it was an unimpressive place at the time," Singelais says. "The product offerings were limited, mostly inorganics and metal products. And there were quality and service issues."

However, starting in 1991, the company experienced a drastic turnaround. Johnson Matthey sent Larry Pentz, who is now on Johnson Matthey's executive board, to Alfa Aesar's facility to make improvements.

"Pentz came in with a strong operations background," Singelais says. "For the first time, there was someone who told us to get our products out on time to customers. He brought in a number of key performance indicators. We shipped products the same day, repackaged products the same day and then had overnight progress reports for what we should and shouldn't do." Singelais says with guidance from Pentz, Alfa Aesar prioritized better and focused on what it needed to do to increase its profits. By 1993, when Pentz left, the company had a catalog of products.

After Pentz left, Singelais says Derek McCall, a Johnson Matthey manager in New Jersey who had a strong marketing background, joined Alfa Aesar. McCall continued to focus on operations and product consistency, but also improved the packaging and quality of literature and the catalog. "We adapted a very positive way of looking at problems," Singelais says. "We began to look at them from a customer's perspective. That is something we've retained for the last 13 years."

In 2000, Alfa Aesar was doing well enough that Johnson Matthey felt [we were one of its businesses] worth investing in further," Singelais says. "One thing I'm proud of is [that] Johnson Matthey showed faith in us by investing in us," he says. "We've been able to return a high percentage of the investment. [Johnson Matthey] took a chance on us, and now we're a core business for the company, which wasn't always the case."

Expanding Its Market Reach
Because Alfa Aesar is backed by the global manufacturing network of Johnson Matthey and other key partnerships and acquisitions, Singelais says Alfa Aesar has access to many high-tech products.

Alfa Aesar acquired Lancaster Synthesis in 2004 and Avocado Organics in 2002, which added 10,000 new products to the company's catalog. Singelais says Alfa Aesar can manufacture thousands of those products, and currently, the company has about 27,000 standard products offered for sale, most of them in stock, and the custom manufacturing capabilities to supply many more specialized items.

In addition, Alfa Aesar formed a partnership with ASDI Inc., a supplier of building blocks for combinatorial chemistry, and Nanophase Technologies, a leader in solving product problems through patented and proprietary nanocrystalline technology, to expand is market reach.

Catalogs and Products
Singelais says something that distinguishes Alfa Aesar from its competitors is its catalog of products. "Our catalog includes a lot of technical data," he says. "It is the most improved catalog in the industry in the last five years. We can make that case because it's now loaded with good indexes referencing data and new and interesting products from us and from our partnered companies."

Singelais says the catalog is distributed globally every two years. About 5,000 new products will be added to the next catalog. "Our basic manufacturing doesn't really change," Singelais says. "We're looking for new and interesting products all the time."

Customer Demands Singelais says Alfa Aesar's customers expect high-quality products made to their specifications or accurate representations of products they see in the catalog.

"We are a flexible company, and we are customer-oriented," he says. "We admit when we make mistakes and then make good on them. If a customer needs a credit, we issue a credit and fix any error we make."  

©2006 Schofield Media Ltd.