Ethyl Corporation was a joint venture created by Standard Oil and General Motors to manufacture tetraethyllead (TEL), the anti-knock gasoline additive that enabled development of the higher-powered engines which drove the transformation of society in the 20th Century, the age of the automobile. In 1937, Ethyl constructed a flagship TEL manufacturing plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Excerpts from 1940s issues of the monthly employee bulletin provide snapshots of various aspects of working for Ethyl and life in Baton Rouge during that era. In 1962, Albemarle Paper Company, with the ambitious F. D. Gottwald at the helm, made Wall Street history by orchestrating what was then the largest-ever leveraged corporate buyout, acquiring Ethyl, a company 18 times its size. Gottwald then leveraged Ethyl’s substantial cash flow and technical expertise to build a diversified chemical manufacturing empire that kept growing despite the phase out of its namesake product. Ultimately, in the 1990s, the huge conglomerate split into several smaller and more specialized companies. The specialty chemicals business was spun off as Albemarle Corporation, which maintains an R&D presence in the footprint of the former TEL manufacturing plant in Baton Rouge. Gottwald’s passion for strategic acquisitions lives on in the company today, as evidenced by the recent acquisition of Rockwood Holdings. Albemarle is poised to continue its growth story in the years to come as a top producer of lithium.

History of Ethyl Corporation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and beyond

255th National Meeting (2018)

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