Texas-based Huntsman Group opens new SSC in Krakow

The new shared-services centre of the $2 billion company is led by Paul Rolle.

Here from the "horse's mouth" (Huntsman's Q3 Earnings Call):
"SG&A remains under control due to our cost optimization program despite a high and persistent inflationary environment. Foreign exchange was a negative impact of approximately $15 million with approximately $20 million of translation impact, partially offset by approximately $5 million of transactional gains as a result of the weakening of the Chinese renminbi.

Our cost optimization and synergy program remains on track. At the end of Q3, we achieved an annualized run rate of $160 million of savings. Excluding our new European restructuring initiative, we expect to meet or exceed our target of $170 million of savings by the end of 2022 and $240 million by the end of 2023.

During the quarter, we made progress recruiting at our new global business services hubs in Costa Rica and in Poland. We expect to be fully operational at those sites during 2023. In addition, as part of our support service model, we announced that we would transition parts of our internal IT services to a third-party managed service provider. We are progressing geographical exits previously announced in polyurethanes. And in Advanced Materials, we announced the closure of our Maple Shade, New Jersey facility which was part of our 2020 acquisition of CVC. In terms of our $240 million program, we expect approximately $65 million of cash costs in 2022 and we're expecting approximately $70 million of cash costs next year as we work through severance and restructuring.

Regarding the proposed European restructuring we have announced today, we have advised the relevant works councils that we intend to consult with them to reduce our costs by exiting certain legacy commercial and R&D facilities, as well as accelerating our move of support services to Krakow, Poland. We intend to achieve approximately $40 million of additional savings over and above our $240 million program by the end of 2023 through certain site closures and headcount reductions in Europe. We expect to spend approximately $50 million of cash restructuring relating to those savings, the majority of which we expect to incur next year. We also expect to spend approximately $15 million of capital expenditure related to the restructuring which we will manage within our normal capital expenditure allocation."