Penfret Partners
Projects
Specialty Chemicals: Footprint Restructuring
Opportunity
Action
Results
Specialty Chemicals (Food, Pharmaceutical Excipients, Industrial Phosphate Salts and Specialty Acids) producer acquires competitor, justified in part by cost synergies.
Transfer all productions to single dedicated or multiproducts units, eliminating sourcing duplication: plan, design, engineer, implement.
Restructured production footprint (3 manufacturing sites shut down) with sustainable improvement in cost competitiveness, achieving targeted merger industrial synergies.
Specialty Acid: Market Growth with WorldClass Technology
Opportunity
Action
Results
End markets for a niche high-strength polymerized superacid show sustained growth while company's production capacity is bottlenecked and spread across locations and technologies.
Develop next-generation best-of-kind process at unprecedented scale, partnering with engineering firms, vendors and materials of construction experts.
Company enjoys unique position in this niche inorganic polyacid market: worldclass variable cost performance and economies of scale. Production capacity meets projected growth plan.
Food & Water Treatment Ingredient: Insourcing
Opportunity
Action
Results
Customer demand for a manufacturing site's output drops following end-product deformulation, damaging site profitability and freeing-up run-time and capacity.
Identify suitable candidate products to be produced in capacity headroom, screen using a technical risk / investment cost / profitability grid then manage project to engineer & implement.
New higher margin product line added to site product portfolio and previously outsourced production brought back in-house, leading to fixed costs savings and increased gross margin.
Sustainable Formulation: Glyphosate
Opportunity
Action
Results
Existing formulation classified as Fish-Toxic, and concentration of active (Glyphosate) limited to a standard strength of 360 g/l.
Development of a novel highly-soluble very-low-aquatic-toxicity surfactant: formulation strength increased to 540 g/l, with much higher Glyphosate foliar penetration efficiency.
Novel third-party-certified fish-friendly and more efficient formulation opens new market. New higher margin surfactant ingredient delivers a cost-effective total solution.
Lean Manufacturing: Energy Integration
Opportunity
Action
Results
Sizable by-production of steam and consumption of electrical power coexist at a large integrated manufacturing complex.
Field survey and investigation of site’s energy recovery potential lead to identification of high return-on-investment project. Fast track team assembled and project implemented.
Electrical power consumption of manufacturing complex cut by two-thirds by a new cogeneration plant combined with heat recovery actions, delivering multi-million-dollar bottom line benefit.
Lean Manufacturing: Soluble Fertilizer Value Stream
Opportunity
Action
Results
Production unit with high breakeven point and unattractive reinvestment economics. Productive front end weighed down by labor-intensive steps add up to unsustainable production fixed costs.
Value Stream Mapping, operator workflow and time studies, followed by technology selection, engineering, construction and change management project.
New automated steps and elimination of non-value-add internal logistics combined to achieve significant labor intensity reduction and post-investment bottom-line improvement.
Lean Manufacturing: Efficient Use of Natural Resources
Opportunity
Action
Results
Water rates increased more than fourfold push utility portion of cost of goods sold much higher up the list at one manufacturing location.
Comprehensive investigation and mapping of consumption throughout the manufacturing site, followed by iterative plan of demand elimination, recovery and reuse strategies.
Water purchases lowered by a factor of more than four through a combination of no-to-minimal-investment modifications and higher price-tag projects. Payback shorter than two years.
Lean Manufacturing: Warehousing & Logistics
Opportunity
Action
Results
Supply chain footprint including multiple production facilities and shipping locations across North America adds up to material transportation and warehousing costs.
Review of production and warehousing network to identify optimized design given shipping, ordering and production patterns as well as transportation cost model structure.
Core footprint structure confirmed to be cost effective. Operation streamlined and cost lowered by outsourcing of key distribution center to specialized logistics company,
Sustainable Formulation: Anti-Drift
Opportunity
Action
Results
Stricter Regulation of off-target pesticide application: previously acceptable buffer zones are being extended.
Development of novel easy-to-use natural polymer-based formulation with excellent compatibility with all possible tank mix ingredients, delivering increased nozzle-exit droplet size.
Drift reduced by more than 90%. Novel formulation is very robust, user-friendly and compatible with all available commercial tank mix products.
Personal Care: Ingredient Development & Marketing
Opportunity
Action
Results
Company develops an innovative synthesis technology as a result of a "technology push" exercise, and needs to know if further investment is warranted.
Identify potential markets, initiate relationships then partnerships with prime-mover players to define target product attributes, then develop and scale-up solution.
Commercial nanometer-scale ultraviolet mineral protectant for sunscreens, with formulation-friendly properties and without the negatives of traditional competing products.
Home Care: Obsolescence & Product Range Renewal
Opportunity
Action
Results
Detergent industry is moving away from powders to tablets, driving company's manufacturing site capacity utilization down: site future in jeopardy unless activity and utilization rates recover.
Project to develop novel builder suitable for use in tablet formulations, from ideation through proof of concept, industrial validation, engineering scale-up and sales ramp-up.
Site activity pushed comfortably over break-even point with a product-mix positioned earlier in the life-cycle, securing its future.
Global Procurement & Back-Integration Strategy
Opportunity
Action
Results
Company dependent on single supplier for most strategic raw material, in the context of price upstream industry price inflation with most alternate suppliers based in challenging geographies.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) assessment of worldwide industry value chain leading to game-changing initiative involving government-owned and private players in Africa, the Americas and the Middle-East, factoring national natural resources policies and ambitions, geopolitical realities and risk-based mid and long-term sustainability factors. Parallel project to secure technology flexibility to run on material from various alternate sources.
Multiple players added to supplier portfolio. Supply relationship rebalanced and major strategic dilemma eliminated. Millions of $ added to bottom line.
Industries
Industries
Penfret Partners has specific actionable experience and expertise in a large number of industries and markets
Regulated Industries
Home & Personal Care
Pharmaceutical & Nutraceutical Ingredients
Logistics
Crop Protection & Plant Health
Fertilizers & Plant Nutrients
Mining
Regulated Industries
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EPA, FDA, OSHA, PSM
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Specialty Phosphates: PPA, HPA, Polyacid, Functional Salts (Baking, Meat, Seafood, Poultry, Detergents, Metal Treatment, Water Treatment, Electronics, etc. markets)
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Pigments: TiO2
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Syngas (CO, H2)
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Organic Acids & derivatives: Acetic Acid, Acrylic Acid, Vinyl Acetate
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Mineral Acids: Sulfuric, Phosphoric (MGA)
Chemicals & Specialty Chemicals
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Dry Bulk (Handymax, Supramax) & Chemical Tanker ocean shipping
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Intermodal, Container, Truck, Rail transportation
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Warehousing (Bulk & Packaged), Distribution and Transloading
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Granular (NP), Liquid and Specialty Soluble (NPK)
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Nitrogen Loss Prevention (NBPT, DCD)
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Micronutrients
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Phosphate Rock (Middle East, Africa, South America, North America)
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Excipients: Calcium Phosphates
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Herbal, Botanical Extracts, Mineral, Chelated Minerals nutritional ingredients
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Phosphate Rock
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Seed Boosters, Biostimulants, Plant Growth Promoters & Inoculants
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Crop Protection Formulation
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Tank Mix Formulation, Anti-Drift, Anti-Rebound
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Activity Enhancers
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In-Soil Water Management
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Surfactants: primary, secondary & cationic
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Polymers (synthetic & natural)
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Conditioners (synthetic & natural)
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UV absorbers: nano TiO2