Hercules Consolidates Research Efforts

Seeking a better handle on innovation, Hercules has been closing satellite labs and consolidating its global R&D efforts near its Wilmington, Del., headquarters.

Hercules is investing $15 million to revitalize its 75-year-old Wilmington R&D center. The firm is now in the process of hiring 50 Ph.D. scientists there to continue the work of researchers who have not made the move from other U.S. and European locations.

Speaking at a meeting of the Société de Chimie Industrielle in New York City earlier this month, Hercules CEO Craig A. Rogerson said he expects that the company will improve the quality of its innovation because R&D and upper management can work better in close proximity.

Unlike larger firms such as Dow Chemical, DuPont, and General Electric that have invested heavily in corporate R&D centers abroad, Hercules shut down R&D operations in Barneveld, the Netherlands, for a loss of 50 jobs, Rogerson said. Eight technical services and applications development jobs were relocated to the firm's Helsingborg, Sweden, site. Hercules will continue to operate applications and product development labs close to customers, Rogerson said, including a new applications lab in the Asia-Pacific region.

Hercules also recently closed a paper chemicals R&D facility in Jacksonville, Fla., where the company employed 60 people. About 15 workers have transferred from Jacksonville to Wilmington, where Hercules inaugurated a new paper chemicals lab in October.