The companies and locations around the United States that ultimately came to comprise Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) have been producing products derived of limestone since 1848.
Today, the SMI segment includes the Company’s Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC) and Processed Minerals product lines. In the 1960s, Pfizer Inc, which spun off what became Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) in 1992, sought to diversify and began to acquire businesses in the minerals industry. In 1961, Pfizer purchased the New England Lime Company (NELCO) in Adams, Massachusetts. The next year, Pfizer purchased the C.K. Williams Company, which operated a plant adjacent to the NELCO facility, as well as other operations, including the Lucerne Valley, California, plant. In 1964, Pfizer purchased NELCO in Canaan, Connecticut, and in 1966 acquired the Southern California Minerals Company, which produced talc products in Barretts, Montana.
The production of PCC business dates back to 1931 at Adams, Massachusetts when C.K. Williams held one of the first patents on PCC and is credited with introducing it to the marketplace. But the PCC business didn't really begin to flourish until the mid-1980s when the Company introduced the on-site satellite plant concept for production of PCC at paper mills, where the material was used as a filler. Until then, the vast majority of uncoated freesheet paper, which is primarily office papers, was produced in an acid environment. After the U.S. paper industry began to see that they could produce higher quality paper at lower cost, the use of PCC grew dramatically. This new way of making paper not only saved the papermakers money, but it resulted in an acid-free paper that would not turn yellow or brittle over time.
In 1986, SMI built its first satellite PCC plant in Wisconsin. Today, the Company has more than 50 satellites in operation at paper mills in 16 countries. The original approach was to promote global expansion by leveraging the technical and commercial resources based primarily in the U.S. Today, the Company has both technical and commercial resources deployed worldwide with major offices in each region and technical centers in Finland, United States and China.
An important aspect to success internationally was the establishment of joint ventures and key supply partnerships, all of which still exist today. Today the PCC business is larger in sales than MTI’s was in 1992.
SMI also produces Specialty PCC, which is used in non-paper applications for the health care, automotive and construction industries. These products are produced at the Company's plants in Adams, Massachusetts and Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Learn more:
