Evonik To Create New $15 Million Business & Innovation Center In Virginia

Evonik Industries announced its plan to invest more than $15 million in its new Richmond Business & Innovation Center and create an estimated 50 jobs over the next five years.

“This investment will enable Evonik to expand its current operations in the Greater Richmond area and preserve more than 130 jobs,” said Dr. Reinhold Brand, senior vice president and general manager of Evonik's Consumer Specialties unit in North America. Dr. Brand said the research and development work at the new Richmond Business & Innovation Center is critical to the continued success of the company’s consumer specialties business.

“Evonik’s decision to stay in Virginia is a win-win for the state and for the Greater Richmond region,” said Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. “Evonik Corporation’s expansion of its research and development facilities in Chesterfield County and the creation of 50 new jobs is a testament to Virginia’s ability to attract innovative and growing companies to the Commonwealth and will contribute to the long-term economic sustainability of the community.”

“Like the state’s well-known slogan, ‘Virginia is for lovers,’ we love being in Virginia,” said Dr. Brand. “The state is very business-friendly and is attractive to current and future employees and their families,” he continued. “We are happy to be in the Greater Richmond area and are excited about our bright future.

“With the new facility, Evonik doubles its laboratory space in Virginia, providing the opportunity to undertake special research and development projects including joint operative research for customers,” Brand said. “This is something we could not do previously,” he said. “It will open up a number of entrepreneurial opportunities for us.

“Evonik worked closely with the state and the Virginia Economic Development Partnership to locate the new Business & Innovation Center Richmond in Virginia,” Brand said.

Evonik’s manufacturing operations, which employ about 110 and produces a variety of ingredients used to make well-known consumer offerings such as cosmetics, fabric softeners, toothpaste and variations of polyurethane foams in addition to industrial products used in agriculture, coatings, metalworking or oil and gas drilling, will remain in the City of Hopewell.

“Hopewell is home to a robust and fast-growing chemical manufacturing site,” Brand said, “and the closeness to the Richmond Business & Innovation Center will benefit Evonik’s significant manufacturing presence in Hopewell. The proximity to our manufacturing site will not only give us a competitive advantage but also support the future development of the company.

“Evonik has purchased a 93,000 square foot facility near Chesterfield Airport in Chesterfield — part of the Greater Richmond area — and will modernize the structure for use as Evonik’s Richmond Business & Innovation Center,” Brand added. The 18-acre site offers Evonik ample room for future expansions.

For additional information about Evonik in North America, please visit our website: www.evonik.com/north-america. Please visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EvonikNorthAmerica. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EvonikN_America.