Colour and additive manufacturer Americhem (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio / USA; www.americhem.com) has announced the appointment of Matthew Hellstern as the group’s CEO. Rick Juve, who currently holds the roles of chairman and CEO, will become chairman of the Americhem Group. Juve said: “The time is right to create a co-ordinated leadership structure with Matthew as our CEO. With a keen focus on solving our customers’ toughest challenges, he will oversee the next steps in our growth.”

In his new position, Hellstern, who has previously held key leadership roles at Sun Chemical and BASF, will “foster strong leadership teams throughout Americhem Group and set expectations and monitor financial performance for all group companies,” the firm said.

Americhem also announced the completion of a plant-wide renovation and redesign of its Manchester / UK facility, work that has been going on since last year. The group said it had installed a new extrusion line in the renovated production hall, while a second extruder had been ordered. It declined to identify the supplier of the extrusion equipment, nor did it reveal the financial investment in the plant upgrade.

Thomas Weigl, vice president and managing director of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, said: “The work at our plant is the result of a desire to serve our customers and position ourselves for growth in the EMEA region. These renovations will allow us to better control efficiency from product design through manufacturing to end-product quality control.”

Last month, Americhem introduced its Vi-Chem division at the VDI "Plastics in Automotive Engineering" congress in Mannheim / Germany. Americhem acquired Vi-Chem, a PVC and TPE compounding specialist, in March last year. Weigl said: “With the introduction of Vi-Chem, Americhem is now adding to its already successful, established portfolio of products to the European automotive industry. Combined with Americhem’s global footprint, and a recent expansion of our European plant, we can now offer even more value in a wide range of automotive applications that contribute to global, in-vehicle colour harmony.”