American Cyanamid was founded in 1907 by Frank Washburn, a Cornell-educated civil engineer. “Cyanamid” is a compound of lime, carbide and nitrogen that was suitable for use in fertilizer. In the first 15 years of the company, the demand for American Cyanamid’s products came almost exclusively from people producing agricultural products.

The economic aftermath of World War I greatly reduced the demand for fertilizers, but did increase demand for cyanamide, which was principally used in the extraction of gold and silver from the ores of these metals. With this development, the company was able to broaden its market by supplying cyanamide to mining companies.

When the economy started to improve, along with an increase in the value of its securities, American Cyanamid was able to begin an aggressive plan of diversification. The period between post-war deflation and the crash of the U.S. stock market in 1929 was a time of expansion for many companies. American Cyanamid, with a total of 30 subsidiaries, became one of the most diversified companies in the chemical industry. One of the most important acquisitions, in retrospect, was that of the pharmaceutical company, Lederle Labs, which was acquired in 1930.

 

The onset of World War II was an important time for American Cyanamid’s pharmaceutical division. The bulk of the company’s business was related to supplying the typhus vaccine and surgical sutures to the armed forces. The division continued to make great strides after this period, with the invention of the antibiotic used to treat pneumonia and also the invention of a polio vaccine.

During the 1950’s, demand for Lederle products was so great that the company had to build new plants throughout the Americas and Europe to keep up with the growth. Leadership of Cyanamid changed four times during this period.

 

In the early 1960’s, the company moved its corporate headquarters to Wayne, New Jersey. It continued to grow as subsidiaries throughout the world operated successfully. In 1967, however, the company had a setback involving a government case concerning claims that several major chemicals companies, including Cyanamid, had conspired to monopolize the marketing and manufacture of tetracycline. As a result of this case, the company ended up having to pay a large fine.

The 1970’s also included some challenges for the company. Industrial sales were down, in part due to prolonged strikes in the rubber and automobile industries. An overcrowded petrochemical market developed, which put pressure on chemical prices at a time when inflation had been increasing operating expenses. During this period, the Lederle part of the company continued to carry the profits. A portion of the company’s consumer division, best known for its Breck Shampoo, was overtaken by large consumer-oriented companies such as Johnson and Johnson. The company was also affected by labor disputes and environmental concerns during this period.

In the 1980’s, Cyanamid’s corporate strategy that was once focused on diversification had changed to one of divesting unprofitable product lines. The company continued to rely on the strength of the pharmaceutical division and made several acquisitions to grow this segment. As the restructuring progressed and the economy improved, profits grew significantly in the late 80’s.

 

In 1990 the company continued its focus on manufacturing drugs and agricultural products. It took another major step by selling the remainder of its consumer product line, which was famous for Old Spice, Combat and Pine-Sol brands, to various companies such as Proctor and Gamble and the Clorox Company.

In 1991, with the U.S. chemical industry in a prolonged downturn, Cyanamid consolidated its chemical businesses into a separate division with sales of $1.1 billion. Cyanamid continued to focus on the pharmaceutical and medical device businesses.

In 1993 Cyanamid completed a spin-off of the chemicals businesses, which later became known as Cytec Industries Inc. This new company established its headquarters in West Paterson, New Jersey, and was led by Darryl D. Fry.

 

The product lines of the newly spun-off chemical company included commodity chemicals, process chemicals, coating resins, acrylic fibers, water treating and mining chemicals, and paper chemicals. During this period the company was back-integrated, manufacturing many of its key raw materials including ammonia, methanol, acrylonitrile, acrylamide and melamine. This competitive advantage helped position the company well in the industry. Yet, the first few years of operating independently proved difficult.

Fry focused his attention on improving customer relations and expanding Cytec’s presence geographically. At the time most of the company’s sales were derived from North American markets and, as part of a new strategy, a goal was set to explore business opportunities in Western Europe, Latin America, China and Southeast Asia as high-growth regions.

Throughout its early years Cytec made several acquisitions and divestitures. By 1997 the acrylic fibers and aluminum sulfate lines were divested, and the company began to concentrate on the value-added, technology-intensive parts of the business.

At the time these strategic changes were taking place Cytec underwent a change in management. In 1997, David Lilley took over as President and assumed responsibility for operations. Fry stayed on as Chairman and CEO, but it was Lilley who oversaw Cytec’s first major acquisition, the purchase of Fiberite, Inc. This acquisition gave Cytec an entrance into the aerospace business, as the acquired company manufactured epoxy and resin systems used in commercial and military aircraft and had facilities across the U.S. and Europe. Then in 1998, Cytec acquired The American Materials & Technologies Corporation to further strengthen its materials portfolio. In 2001, two additional acquisitions were made to further enhance the materials segment. The first was the purchase of 3M’s composite business, and the second was the purchase of BP Amoco’s carbon fiber business. The combined businesses enhanced Cytec’s presence as a leading manufacturer of carbon fiber and composites in the aerospace industry.

In 2003, a few years following the acquisitions related to the engineered materials segment, the company purchased Avecia’s metal extraction products to broaden Cytec’s mining chemicals portfolio. Then in 2005 Cytec purchased the surface specialties division of UCB Chemicals, a company based in Belgium, which doubled the size of the company in terms of employees, manufacturing facilities and sales. This was a strategic move to strengthen Cytec’s existing position in the coating resins market and also to further develop the company as a leader in providing environmentally-friendly resins for coatings. The acquisition of UCB’s chemicals division included eco-friendly technologies such as powder resins, radiation curable resins and waterborne technologies. Shortly following this major move, Cytec sold the acrylamide and water treatment chemicals business to Kemira in 2006.

Cytec now operates three business segments: Specialty Chemicals, Engineered Materials and Building Block Chemicals. Cytec’s products serve end markets including aerospace, adhesives, automotive and industrial coatings, chemical intermediates, inks, mining and plastics. The company uses its technology and application development expertise to create chemical and material solutions that are formulated to perform specific and important functions in the finished products of its customers.