Quaker Houghton
A Pennsylvania-based specialty chemical maker formed by Quaker Chemical Corporation's 2019 combination with Houghton International, now one of the world's largest suppliers of industrial process fluids to the steel, aluminum, automotive and aerospace industries.
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- Established
- 1918
- Location
- Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, United States
- Country
- United States
- Legal name
- Quaker Chemical Corporation, doing business as Quaker Houghton; trades on the New York Stock Exchange as KWR
- Business
- Develops, produces and markets formulated chemical specialty products and chemical management services for industrial manufacturing, including rolling lubricants, corrosion preventives, metal finishing compounds, machining and grinding compounds, hydraulic fluids and specialty greases, serving steel, aluminum, automotive, aerospace and mining customers
- Origins
- Quaker Chemical Corporation founded in 1918; Houghton International founded in 1865stated by the subject
- 2019 merger
- Quaker Chemical's acquisition of Houghton International was valued at approximately $1.4 billion; the U.S. Federal Trade Commission required divestiture of overlapping North American aluminum hot rolling oil and steel cold rolling oil product lines to Total S.A. before clearing the deal
- Scale at formation (2019)
- Approximately $1.6 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue, roughly 4,000-4,400 employees, operations in more than 25 countries and about 15,000 customers worldwide
- Leadership
- Michael F. Barry was Chairman, CEO and President at the company's 2019 formation; by July 2024, Barry was board chairman and Andy Tometich was CEO
Overview
Quaker Houghton is the trading name of Quaker Chemical Corporation, a Pennsylvania-incorporated maker of formulated chemical specialty products and chemical management services headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, trading on the New York Stock Exchange as KWR (SEC EDGAR). Its product lines include rolling lubricants, corrosion preventives, metal finishing compounds, machining and grinding compounds, hydraulic fluids and specialty greases, sold mainly to steel, aluminum, automotive, aerospace and mining manufacturers (SEC EDGAR). Quaker Chemical Corporation was founded in 1918, and Houghton International — the company it merged with in 2019 to form Quaker Houghton — was founded in 1865 (Quaker Houghton); a 2016 SEC filing independently describes Quaker Chemical as having “nearly 100 years” of operations by that point, consistent with the 1918 date (SEC EDGAR).
The 2019 merger with Houghton International
Quaker Chemical’s acquisition of Houghton International was valued at approximately $1.4 billion (Federal Trade Commission). In July 2019, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission voted 5-0 to require Quaker Chemical to divest Houghton’s North American aluminum hot rolling oil and steel cold rolling oil businesses — along with related steel cleaners and compatible hydraulic fluids — to the French company Total S.A., after finding that Quaker and Houghton were the only two commercial suppliers of aluminum hot rolling oil in North America and among the two largest suppliers of steel cold rolling oil there (Federal Trade Commission). European regulators separately required divestitures to Total before clearing the deal (The Philadelphia Inquirer). The merger closed on August 29, 2019, more than two years after it was first announced, creating a combined company with about $1.6 billion in trailing twelve-month revenue, roughly 4,000 employees and 15,000 customers across more than 25 countries, headquartered in Conshohocken (The Philadelphia Inquirer; Quaker Houghton). The Inquirer described the combined firm as “one of a shrinking number of multinational players” making specialty industrial lubricants and chemicals in small batches at plants across the Americas, Europe and Asia (The Philadelphia Inquirer). At the merger’s completion, Michael F. Barry served as chairman, CEO and president, and the 11-member board combined eight directors from Quaker Chemical with three directors nominated by the Hinduja Group, including Sanjay Hinduja, Ramaswami Seshasayee and Michael J. Shannon (Quaker Houghton).
About four weeks after the merger closed, Quaker Houghton acquired the specialty-chemicals operations of U.K.-based Norman Hay Plc for approximately £80 million (about $98 million), a deal expected to add roughly $78 million in annual sales and $14 million in profit; Barry also set a target of cutting $60 million in costs to improve the profitability of the Houghton acquisition (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
Board and governance since 2024
By July 2024, Michael F. Barry held the role of board chairman while Andy Tometich served as chief executive officer (SEC EDGAR). On July 31, 2024, Quaker Houghton appointed two new independent directors: Nandita Bakhshi, the former President and CEO of Bank of the West and co-CEO of BNP Paribas USA, and Lucrèce Foufopoulos-De Ridder, a 30-year veteran of the specialty chemicals industry who had most recently served as Executive Vice President of Polyolefins, Circular Economy Solutions and Innovation & Technology at Borealis Group after earlier senior roles at Eastman Chemical, Dow Chemical, Rohm and Haas, Dow Corning and Raychem (SEC EDGAR; citybiz). Barry called the two directors “skilled global executives with extensive operational and strategic experience across a diverse set of global businesses and industries” (citybiz). By that date, the company reported approximately 4,400 employees across operations in more than 25 countries (SEC EDGAR; citybiz).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not independently verify Quaker Houghton’s current financial results, market share, or competitive position beyond the 2019 merger-era figures and the FTC’s 2019 antitrust findings cited above — it does not track the company’s performance in the years since. It does not describe the terms or scope of the Hinduja Group’s prior ownership stake in Houghton International beyond noting the three board seats that stake produced at the 2019 merger, since that history was not independently verified here. It does not resolve exactly when Michael F. Barry’s role changed from chief executive to chairman-only, or when Andy Tometich became CEO, beyond confirming the titles each held on the two dates cited (see Open items). It also does not evaluate Quaker Houghton’s environmental, safety or labor record, which was outside the scope of the sources consulted.
Timeline
- 1865
- Houghton International, later one of the two companies that merged to form Quaker Houghton, is founded.
- 1918
- Quaker Chemical Corporation is founded; a 2016 SEC filing describes the company as having "nearly 100 years" of operations, consistent with this founding date.
- 2019-07
- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission votes 5-0 to require Quaker Chemical to divest Houghton International's North American aluminum hot rolling oil and steel cold rolling oil product lines, and related steel cleaners and hydraulic fluids, to Total S.A. before approving the roughly $1.4 billion acquisition on antitrust grounds.
- 2019-08-29
- The merger of Quaker Chemical and Houghton International completes after more than two years of regulatory review, forming Quaker Houghton, headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, with combined trailing twelve-month revenue of about $1.6 billion.
- 2019-09
- About four weeks after the merger, Quaker Houghton acquires the specialty-chemicals operations of U.K.-based Norman Hay Plc for approximately £80 million (about $98 million), expected to add roughly $78 million in sales and $14 million in profit.
- 2024-07-31
- Nandita Bakhshi and Lucrèce Foufopoulos-De Ridder join Quaker Houghton's board of directors as independent directors.
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Sources give slightly different figures for the newly merged company's scale in 2019: the company's own announcement states approximately 4,000 employees and 15,000 customers, while citybiz's 2024 reporting (five years later) states approximately 4,400 employees; this profile treats both as consistent with gradual headcount growth rather than a contradiction, but does not assert a single precise 2019 employee count.
- The exact date Michael F. Barry moved from CEO to a chairman-only role, and the date Andy Tometich became CEO, could not be independently pinned down; this profile confirms only that Barry held the CEO title in August 2019 and that Tometich held it by July 2024.
Sources
6 sources (4 tier 1, 1 tier 2, 1 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, an independent major metropolitan newspaper covering the company's Pennsylvania home market, was fetched and read in full for the merger's terms, scale and the Norman Hay acquisition. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's press release on its antitrust conditions was independently fetched from ftc.gov. Quaker Chemical's 2016 Form 10-K and its July 2024 Form 8-K exhibit were fetched directly from SEC EDGAR. citybiz, an independent trade-press outlet, was fetched to corroborate the July 2024 board appointments. The company's own history page (home.quakerhoughton.com) was used only for the two companies' uncontested founding years, which are not disputed by any independent source found. Wikipedia's article on Quaker Houghton was checked only as a lead index for possible angles and was not cited; every fact used here was independently verified against the non-Wikipedia sources listed below.
- Newly-merged Quaker Houghton races to build its oily global business Supports: The merger's completion date, its regulatory history (including the Total S.A. divestitures), the combined company's headquarters, revenue and employee figures, CEO Michael Barry's role and statements, and the subsequent Norman Hay Plc acquisition.
- FTC Imposes Conditions on Quaker Chemical Corp.'s Acquisition of Houghton International Inc. Supports: The approximately $1.4 billion transaction value, the specific antitrust concerns (aluminum hot rolling oil and steel cold rolling oil markets), the required divestitures to Total S.A., and the FTC's 5-0 vote.
- Quaker Chemical Corporation Form 10-K (fiscal year 2015) Supports: Independent regulatory-filing confirmation of the company's Conshohocken, Pennsylvania headquarters, its Pennsylvania incorporation, its product lines and business description, and its "nearly 100 years" of operations as of 2016, corroborating the 1918 founding date.
- Quaker Chemical Corporation Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1 (director appointment press release) Supports: The July 31, 2024 appointment of Nandita Bakhshi and Lucrèce Foufopoulos-De Ridder to the board, the company's business description, employee count and country footprint at that date, and confirmation that Michael F. Barry was board chairman and Andy Tometich was CEO at that time.
- Quaker Houghton Appoints Nandita Bakhshi and Lucrèce Foufopoulos-De Ridder to Board Supports: Independent trade-press corroboration of the July 2024 board appointments and the company's employee count, country footprint and industry customer base.
- Leaders in Industrial Process Fluids Combine to Form Quaker Houghton Supports: The company's own statement of Quaker Chemical's 1918 and Houghton International's 1865 founding years, and the merged board's composition (eight Quaker Chemical directors and three directors nominated by the Hinduja Group).
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