Groups of visitors occasionally come to the site to experience a page taken out of American history.

A past that has nothing to do with WACKER, however. This former residence on the Adrian site is called Sutton Place and was built in 1853. Shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War, thousands of slaves from the southern states fled to the north. They were helped by a network of anti-slavery activists known as abolitionists, who hid the escaped slaves from bounty hunters. One of their hiding places was a secret basement underneath Sutton Place.

Where WACKER’s Business in the Americas Started

Adrian is steeped in history for WACKER, too. WACKER has been producing silicones in Adrian since 1969, initially in a joint venture with a US partner company and, since 1987, as the plant’s sole owner. It is WACKER’s oldest production plant in the USA and the original seed of the company’s business activities in the Americas, where it now generates about a fifth of its total sales.

Originally, it was the proximity to the big automakers in Detroit that was important, with the majority of the silicones produced in Adrian destined for use in American automobiles. Nowadays, the raw silicone materials, silicone fluids and silicone emulsions WACKER manufactures in Adrian supply a wide variety of different industries across the continent. The small town of Adrian is also the headquarters of Wacker Chemical Corporation, WACKER’s North American subsidiary. Administration, finance, marketing, sales and technical staff all work there. The site has its own WACKER ACADEMY, and the WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS division has its US headquarters there as well.

From his office, which offers views of the surrounding countryside, the new President & CEO, David Wilhoit, has been in charge of business for North and Central America & Norte Andino since early 2015. For Californian-born Wilhoit, Adrian is a real contrast to his previous place of work, Singapore, where he was head of a joint venture between Siltronic AG and Samsung. “California probably has more in common with Singapore than it does with Michigan,” he says jokingly.

Rural Surroundings

No one driving along rural-looking Sutton Road would guess there is a chemical plant beyond the low fence: nothing to be seen but spacious lawns, magnificent old trees, a few parked cars, the Stars and Stripes atop the flagpole.

But this picturesque setting is only part of the allure. Those working in the production plant in 1987 will remember how the WACKER site developed. The original workforce of 300 has grown to around 560 today. The silicone mixers, which look like greatly oversized food processors, were partially switched over to continuous operation very early on, and numerous production halls, warehouses and administrative buildings have been added in the intervening period.

Today, green signs bear the names of the streets on the production site, like Innovation Highway and Silicone Valley. The production halls are extremely clean. Things were quite different in the period before WACKER took over, as long-time employees recall.

Those from Adrian’s initial days would also tell you that, at first, it was far from easy working with their new German colleagues. According to the American pioneers, the Germans tended to be slow, as they sometimes over-analyzed problems; while the Germans could not understand that their US colleagues’ planning horizon typically had a shorter reach than what Germans were accustomed to.

Today, the employees in Adrian and their CEO see themselves as part of a global team. Silicones business in Adrian has become much more international as well. In addition to the USA, which is the world’s second-largest chemical market, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the northern tip of South America have grown in importance.

Wilhoit talks enthusiastically about the smaller silicone sites in Chino, California, and North Canton, Ohio, both of which produce customized silicone rubber compounds. “At these plants, we work hand in hand with our customers to develop specialty products; we can respond quickly and produce in small quantities if required,” says Wilhoit. The facilities there are used, for example, to make extremely reliable and durable silicones for sealing aircraft windows.

Big Potential

Wilhoit sees a lot of potential for silicones in the healthcare sector, especially when it comes to new specialty silicones for wound dressings, for example. These silicones are skin-friendly and breathable. Even more importantly, however, hairs or skin cells do not stick to them – so that changing a dressing is no longer a painful experience. The market for these silicones is immense.

In fact, the USA is the world’s biggest market for medical technology, with seven of the world’s ten largest medical technology corporations headquartered there. With current total sales of US$ 134 billion, these ten leading companies account for more than a third of global sales, according to market researchers at Evaluate Ltd.

Tapping new business fields is an exciting challenge for the employees in Adrian. A number of them were already working at the plant when WACKER produced its first silicones there back in 1969. Some families can even boast several generations of WACKER employees and, for decades, the company has had very close ties with the local community. Even though WACKER has grown into a global player over the years, residents in Adrian still consider it a local business.

For Wilhoit, this close bond between the company and the community is remarkable. “While the company spirit is expressed differently in the world’s regions,” he says. “Adrian’s culture is extremely close knit.” So he was very impressed when 1,200 people turned out at the Adrian site for the company’s open house in 2014. The employees from Procurement, whose offices are in historic Sutton House, share that sense of enthusiasm. After all, they are accustomed to having vendors and community visitors – visitors in search of American history in the basement of a German chemical company.