DuPont will spend $200 million on Experimental Station

DuPont chief executive officer Ed Breen recently announced his company will spend $200 million to upgrade and modernize the Experimental Station, the birthplace of DuPont products Nylon, Kevlar, Tyvek and Neoprene. DuPont’s 114-year-old research facility is located in Alapocas, Delaware.

In the interests of supporting the incubation of ideas and products, renovations will enhance laboratory space and create collaboration centers for suppliers and DuPont customers. Plans include dedicating space for third-party science companies.

Other companies are already housed at the 150-acre facility. Hygiena, a sanitation testing company that purchased DuPont’s food safety diagnostics business, and Chemours, a new company spun off of DuPont’s performance chemical businesses, lease space at the Experimental Station. And if the proposed $130 billion merger with the Dow Chemical Co. is completed, Dow personnel will also work at the research center.

The proposed merger would yield three companies owned by DowDuPont. Companies focused on agriculture and specialty products would be based in Delaware. The third company would focus on the material sciences industry and be based in Midland, Michigan.

Breen announced in 2016 that DuPont expects to spend $1.7 billion in research and development in 2017. DuPont’s investment plan for 2017 also includes the sale of Tyvek at Lowe’s Home Improvement stores nationwide.

Sources:

The News Journal, delawareonline.

Merger: http://nypost.com/2017/01/15/dupont-dow-merger-faces-stiff-eu-resistance/

Hygiena: https://foodsafetytech.com/news_article/hygiena-acquire-duponts-food-safety-diagnostics-business/