American Chemical Corporation
Context

The business environment leading up to 1979 was a very challenging one as the U.S. economy was still on the heels of a period of high inflation, low growth and high unemployment that started in the 1970s. The deep recession hit almost all sections of the economy. Real gross national product (GNP) fell by 2.5 percent while the unemployment rate rose above 10 percent and almost one-third of America's industrial plants lay idle.

Company

The Dixon Corporation is a specialty chemicals company that supplies primarily to the paper and pulp industry. The company’s products are mainly used by paper companies as a bleaching agent for pulp. Dixon’s principal plant was located in Calhoun, Georgia, and mostly supplied paper and pulp companies in the southeastern United States. The company achieved strong growth with a compounded annual growth sales of 17% for the past 5 years (1974-1979) and improved net margins to 9.5% by 1979 as the sodium chlorate market remained resilient despite the difficult economic situation.

Customers

The primary customers of the sodium chlorate producers are the paper and pulp industry, which accounts for approximately 85% of total production. As such, growth in the markets will essentially mirror growth in the pulp & paper industry. The 1970s was a turbulent period for the paper and pulp industry, marked by greatly intensified competition, periods of overcapacity (especially in 1976), a deep recession in mid-decade, rapidly rising inflation throughout the industrial world and a decline in the competitiveness of the U.S. economy as a whole. Despite this, the paper and pulp industry remained resilient with growth expected to pick-up by the 1980s as the U.S. economy recovers and the prospect for substantial future growth in the worldwide use of pulp and paper. As such, the outlook for the sodium