Company’s collapse the death of an industrial dream
CHEMSPEC’S collapse brings to an end the proud legacy of a brilliant inventor and businessman.
It has been 58 years since industrial chemist Peter Dykins founded Chemical Specialities (ChemSpec), a company producing textile chemicals and blended solvents as well as a compact range of wood-finish and industrial coatings at a small facility off Umbilo Road.
Today, his widow, Pauline, was too devastated to speak about the collapse of the business her late husband dedicated years to building and for which he was well respected in the industry – both for his achievements and the hundreds of people his vision created employment for. “I am sorry for the loss of personnel… plenty of good people have lost their jobs, some of whom I remember from the earlier days,” she said.
Originally a family-owned business that grew into a significant force locally and internationally, employing over 1 000 people, ChemSpec was this week propelled towards liquidation after an earlier business rescue plan fell apart.
Dykins founded ChemSpec in 1957 and a decade later had twice outgrown his premises as milestones in the company’s growth path. ChemSpec began producing automotive refinish paints and ancillary products, and continued growing over the next two decades.
Nearly 50 years after Dykins had laid the cornerstone of his empire, the family sold ChemSpec via a management buyout financed by RMB Corvest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of FirstRand Bank Holdings and its empowerment investment group Tandem Capital.
However, in November 2010, citing ill health, but only days after the Pietermarizburg High Court had ordered he repay millions of rand in a share dispute, former chairman and chief excutive Strath Wood stepped down from the board.
He left South Africa for the US soon thereafter and in November 2013 was provisionally sequestrated in the Durban High Court. The reputational damage was significant.
In March, it announced the voluntary business rescue after the major shareholders decided against injecting additional capital into the business. This week ChemSpec was in court following an urgent Durban High Court application in which FirstRand Bank called in a R74 million loan.