Univar announces ‘Streamline 2022’

Univar Solutions, the world’s second largest chemical distributor, has announced its Streamline 2022 (S22) programme. This may lead to the sale of over $200 million in non-core assets and Univar will incur up to an incremental $50 million in charges in 2020 to implement it. The stated aims of S22 are to improve operational agility, drive faster sales growth, particularly in North America, reduce leverage to 3.0x by the end of 2021 and improve EBITDA margins to 9% by the end of 2022.

As part of this, there has already been realignment at the top in North America, with direct functional reporting of all segments to CEO David Jukes. Mark Fisher has stepped down as the president of USA and Canada and the following senior vice-presidents assume expanded roles:

* Jennifer McIntyre: chief streamline officer and head of North American Operations, with responsibility for completing the integration of Nexeo and oversight of S22

* Brian Herington: chief commercial officer and head of North American chemical distribution

* Nick Powell: president of the EMEA and APAC regions, and global head of Consumer & Industrial Solutions

S22 also involves “a greater emphasis on, and the integration of, the company’s digital capabilities, as well as a global approach to certain of the company’s dedicated end market verticals”. To this end, Univar has since announced a further expansion in digital services to “enhance and differentiate the customer experience, reach new markets and customers, and accelerate growth”, through four main channels that will launch initially in the US in early 2021 and be rolled out globally.

Shop.UnivarSolutions.com will provides access to the full 17,000+ product catalogue through an e-commerce system including complete order status, invoicing, transaction history, safety and regulatory documentation, plus a functionality for the real-time status of orders. Meanwhile, the third party platform ChemCentral.com will offer “a simple, no frills buying option”. The main website, UnivarSolutions.com will have new digital tools added, including a product and formulation finder. Finally, Univar will use ChemPoint.com to offer “a unique business model focused on demand creation and marketing as an additional service.