A milestone for INVISTA.

Invista was born from a strong heritage of product innovation and market insight. And a year on from a major takeover deal, INVISTA, with strong roots on Teesside, is powering ahead. INVISTA was purchased by subsidiaries of US-based Koch Industries on April 30, 2004 from DuPont.

Koch Industries is a privately owned company headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Koch Industries owns a diverse group of companies operating in more than 30 industries including petroleum, natural gas, gas liquids, chemicals, plastics and fibres, chemical technology equipment, minerals, fertilisers, securities and finance.

Formerly known as DuPont Textiles and Interiors, INVISTA was merged with Koch's KoSA Polyester Fibres business: a producer of commodity and specialty polyester fibres, polymers and intermediates.

Bringing these two industry leaders together transformed INVISTA into the world's largest integrated producer and marketer of premium fibres, resins and intermediates, with a presence across six continents.

INVISTA currently holds more than 1,150 patents and owns leading brands such as Lycra, Teflon, Tactel, Coolmax and Stainmaster.

With five key areas of operation: apparel; interiors; intermediates; performance fibres and polymer and resins, INVISTA manufactures nylon polymers and nylon intermediates used in a whole range of industries and products ranging from carpets to soft drink bottles.

And INVISTA's presence on Teesside is strong, with two businesses at Tees Valley's key chemical complex ( Wilton International.

Its two operations are INVISTA Nylon and INVISTA Performance Technologies, which employ around 400 staff in total. In addition, the two operations support the employment of approximately 350 contract staff, making INVISTA a key employer on Teesside and a significant contributor to the local economy.

Since 1993, pounds 290m has been spent on upgrading and improving INVISTA's Wilton operations.

* At the end of last year, a multi-million pound modernised project was completed at its ketone-alcohol process, making it one of the most competitive plants in the world.

* State of the art process technology has been deployed to achieve world-class levels of safety, environmental performance, quality, throughput and efficiency.

* Last year, pounds 4m was also invested in the site's north area control centre ( which now contains cutting edge technology to control the operation of its nitric acid plant, a key feedstock for the industry.

Nylon polymer is the major product created at Wilton, and is produced in a wide variety of types to meet the needs of a diverse range of end uses including textiles, car airbags and a host of industrial applications.

In addition, the Wilton site produces adipic acid, consumed on the site as one of the key ingredients for nylon production, but also exported as ADI-Pure, INVISTA's high purity brand of adipic acid. ADI-Pure is used in the production of a wide variety of products including adhesives, coatings, inks, resins, lubricants and foodstuffs.

INVISTA's products serve an impressive and expansive range of finished products and markets. Many of its products are building blocks critical to the production process within INVISTA's other businesses.

* INVISTA Intermediates produces alternatives to a variety of other products including: chemical intermediates; pharmaceutical intermediates; institutional and industrial cleaning solutions; pigment precursors; fragrance ingredients; organic-based printing inks; flame retardants; foundry; corrosion inhibitors; synthetic lubricants; adhesives; soil stabilization products and building blocks for polyamides, polyurethanes and plasticisers.

* INVISTA Polymer and Resins offers a diverse portfolio of products under this business, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins which are used for bottles and containers for carbonated soft drink, water, beer, juice, food and custom container applications.

INVISTA also produces a range of high-performance polyester staple fibres for non-wovens and industrial applications such as absorbent products, wipes, filtration, automotive products, specialty papers and insulation.

All this makes INVISTA a global company with a rich heritage committed to technical innovations ( from the molecule to manufacturing to the marketplace.

The leadership team at the INVISTA Wilton site would like to thank all its employees and contractors for their outstanding commitment and hard work during this first year of transition and we look forward to a productive future!.