Solvay chairman: Company has survived recession

Solvay’s executive committee chairman Christian Jourquin has addressed the organisation’s employees and assured them of the future of the firm.

He highlighted comments made in 2007 that the firm would be well-prepared to weather the storm of recession and pointed out that this reassurance has proved to be correct.

However, he added, this was partially achieved by selling its pharmaceutical sector to Abbott, something that avoided “major expense” and was the product of “very hard and careful thought”.

Mr Jourquin continued: “We remain confident because we have demonstrated our resilience. This confidence allows us to approach the coming year with calm, without fear or undue optimism – because the recession is not over. 2010 dawns in a still difficult context.

In November, Solvay unveiled financial results for the first nine months of 2009, which showed that sales for the period reached 6,286 million euros (5,635 million pounds).

This is a 13 per cent decrease compared to the figure achieved during the first nine months of 2008.