Ferox Manufactured Products

Essay by CornelUniversity, Master'sF, June 2004

download word file, 6 pages 4.3

Ferox Manufactured Products

Introduction

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. - current situation

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APCI) is an international gas products corporation of, headquartered in the United States, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with $3 billion in annual sales. It has 250 people in its U.S. plant and 250 in its UK plant.

Nigel Chandler, joint-venture managing director.

The Czech government must approve the privatization plan, which is expected in the near future. Then, the Ferox and APCI managers will be free to begin to make the changes necessary to meet their strategic objectives.

APCI must gear the West system in doing business at the newest after Communist environment from Czech country, must understand cultural differences.

Ferox must learn and assimilate the West system not only in doing business and in attitudes and other point of view for live.

The APCI acquisition of Ferox was negotiated by a team of U.S.,

German, and British APCI executive. Initially, Nigel Chandler a British APCI executive was appointed as managing director of the new Ferox - Air Products joint venture. In the following interview, Chandler shares his experience and observations on the challenges Western companies face in acquiring and forming joint ventures in the new Czech and Slovak Republics.

It was a difficult decision for APCI, but APCI sow the great opportunity to extend their business in Central and Eastern Europe. In the same time APCI is willing to bring several important contributions to Ferox:

- specific know-how about the gas business, APCI has experience in this field (how to sell it commercially, where to make changes);

- Financial and accounting skills. Free market accounting systems need to be adopted particularly pricing and costing systems. Doing this they must have in their minds the new Czechoslovak tax lows, which are due in...