Fuji Hunt Specialty Products history

In 1944 Olin retired, well into his 80s, and consolidated his different businesses under Olin Industries, Inc., keeping most of the stock but distributing the rest to his sons, Spencer and John, who by this time were in their 60s.

Starting in 1947 Nicholls, with the help of his friend John Leppart, had transformed Mathieson, a small regional chemical company which concentrated on a few commodity chemicals, into a company with $366 million in sales.

In the late 1950's, the Company added both a research and development laboratory and a new manufacturing plant at the headquarters in Palisades Park, New Jersey.

The idea of a merger was first broached in 1951, but discarded because a satisfactory division of power did not seem possible.

In 1952 it acquired pharmaceutical E.R Squibb & Sons, deemed a good fit because chlorine served as an important precursor chemical in about 85 percent of all pharmaceutical products.

Sales for that year were a disappointing $20 million, although Bill Hanes had said in 1956 that sales would soon be hitting $1 billion.

The lack of communication and poor diversification strategy led to the 1957 purchase of an aluminum plant.

The August 1958 issue of Fortune magazine accused the company of allowing itself to be constantly side-tracked.

In 1959 profits increased 17% over the previous year, but that rate of growth did not continue.

In the later 1960's, Hunt built a photographic chemical manufacturing plant in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

In 1965, Hunt Chemical entered the color photo finishing chemical business with the introduction of liquid concentrate developers for film and paper which offered significant advantages over the powder products available at the time.

In 1967 Grand planned a program of expansion into recreation, housing, lumber, and chemicals.

In 1968, for example, the head of Squibb convinced Olin to sell that division so that it could realize its full earnings potential.

In 1969, the company adopted its present name of Olin Corporation.

In the late 1970’s housing and Winchester Arms took on the role of the ill-fated aluminum works in suppressing profits.

In 1974 the next president of Olin, James Towey, was able to boast an 80 percent jump in earnings, largely due to the sale of the aluminum operations and polyester film factories which had been depressing earnings.

In 1975 the company continued to sell unprofitable product lines such as the parka business it had bought a few years before.

Olin sold the firearms business in 1981 and now only produces ammunition under the Winchester name.

Under the Olin Corporation's umbrella in 1984, Hunt developed electrostatic toners for original equipment manufacturers and its photoresist business for the computer industry.

In 1985 the profitable but slow growing paper division was sold, along with the last of the home-building concerns.

In 1989, Olin sold the photochemical portion of Hunt, later renamed Fuji Hunt Photographic Chemicals, Inc.

In 1991 Johnstone announced another round of streamlining, divesting several under-performing chemical lines and its European sporting ammunition business.

In 1992 the company established a new aliphatic diisocyanate (ADI) unit in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which prepared it for a major push into the area of performance urethanes, used in coatings for products on cars and appliances.

In early 1994 Olin acquired GenCorp’s Aerojet medium caliber ammunition business, making Olin one of only two United States producers of medium caliber ammunition.

By the end of 1995 Olin sold or simply closed 18 businesses and product lines in order to focus on three core businesses: chemicals, defense, and metals.

Finally, in 1996, Olin sold the electrostatic toner division to Mr.

The name Arch Chemicals, Inc. was selected and in August 1998 the new entity was incorporated in Virginia, although its headquarters would be established in Norwalk, Connecticut.

In September 1999, Arch completed its first acquisition, adding the HQEE-hydroquinone di (beta-hydroxyethyl) Ether business of Eastman Chemical Company.

Arch also added to its roster of personal care intermediates with the November 2000, $38 million cash purchase of New Jersey-based Brooks Industries.

The company then grew its core businesses through the $49 million acquisitions of Monarch Brass & Copper Corp. in June 2001.

The company then added Chase Industries Inc. in 2002, paying $176 million in stock.

As a result, Arch was able to further trim its debt and put itself in a strong position to benefit from a rebound in the economy, as revenues topped the $1 billion mark in 2003.

In early 2004 the company decided to move its headquarters from Connecticut to its East Alton, Illinois, facility, home of Winchester Ammunition, a switch that along with a cut in corporate staff saved about $6 million a year.

"St Louis-Based Olin Has New National Headquarters at The Plaza In Clayton," Daily Record (St Louis), April 15, 2005.

Hunt Imaging, a leading producer of dry and liquid toners and an ISO 9001:2008 certified manufacturer, continues its 100-year tradition of innovative product development with a complete line of HI-4000 and HI-4100 toners.

In 2017 Cymer acquired the business of GP Chemicals Inc., a specialty chemical technology developer in New Jersey.