Ineos Enterprises moving North American headquarters to Ohio

Ineos Enterprises Group Ltd. has chosen central Ohio for its North American headquarters. The company is relocating some research/development and customer service operations to two Columbus suburbs.

Offices are moving from Wichita, Kan., and Port Neches, Texas, to Grandview Heights, Ohio. The Grandview Heights site "was a legacy Ashland laboratory," Andrew Beer, senior vice president for the Americas at Ineos Composites, said recently by phone.

"It housed many businesses over the decades. It's an adequate site, but not specifically suited for our future," Beer said. "It's a shell right now," waiting for development.

Ineos Enterprises in 2019 bought Ashland's $1.1 billion composites business, which included unsaturated polyester resins, vinyl ester resins and gelcoats. Ineos Enterprises also includes Ineos Pigments and Ineos Solvents.

In addition to renovating the Ashland site, Ineos will create a laboratory at a new location in nearby Dublin, Ohio, to expand the research capabilities it has there now and to accommodate operations from the pigments lab moving from Glen Burnie, Md., near Baltimore.

The company is investing a total of $24.5 million for the new 65,500-square-foot laboratory and to develop the Grandview Heights location for office administration.

Beer said Ineos expects many employees to relocate to Ohio, but the company is hiring locally now for both locations. The site-shuffling is necessary, he said, because of growing demand.

"We're relocating a large portion of the team," and creating about 50 new jobs. The project will help the company continue to grow and make more acquisitions in the area. Ineos has "grown through acquisition dramatically" in recent years," he noted.

Ineos Enterprises makes intermediary chemicals for markets including coatings, paints, construction, automotive, medical devices and packaging. It employs 3,100 people globally and has annual sales of more than $3 billion.

Its parent, Ineos Group is based in London and encompasses consumer businesses, automotive and sports interests.