In mid-June, specialty chemicals company LANXESS received the Supplier Award in the category “Raw Materials” from BRITA GmbH, one of the leading drinking water optimization companies. The awards, which also included the categories “Components” and “Packaging”, were presented for the first time in 2013.

The ceremony took place at the BRITA supplier day on June 12, 2013 in Taunusstein, near Wiesbaden in Hesse, Germany. Corinne Mandin, head of Sales EMEA in the Liquid Purification Technologies (LPT) business unit at LANXESS, said proudly, “We are delighted about this recognition. It is in keeping with our corporate philosophy of working with our partners in an open and trusting manner, and we are confident that we will be able to continue this extraordinary customer-supplier relationship in the future.”

One of the decisive factors for choosing the global supplier of Lewatit ion exchange resins was its excellent performance in the annual BRITA supplier evaluation, where LANXESS achieved an impressive 88.1 percent, far outstripping the average of 76.4 percent. This evaluation also reflects LANXESS’ very good product quality and exceptional service as a supplier. Around 40 people are involved in supplier evaluation at BRITA. The complete evaluation is made up of the three disciplines “Procurement & Supply”, “Quality” and “Product Development”.

Based in Taunusstein, BRITA develops, produces and sells a broad spectrum of innovative solutions for optimizing drinking water – from table water-filters to systems for commercial use in restaurants, catering and beverage vending machines and mains-connected water dispensers for offices, schools and the hygiene-conscious care sector. The company uses ion exchange resins of the tried-and-tested LANXESS Lewatit brand in cartridges for table water-filters, among other applications. These filters can be found in many households, where they are used to soften water to make perfect tea and coffee.

However, Lewatit is also responsible for water quality at the workplace at LANXESS. The high-performance ion exchange resins will soon also be found in water dispensers in the LANXESS Tower in Cologne, the future group headquarters. Multi-stage water filtration will then ensure that the notoriously hard water of the Cologne area is softened and filtered to give it the best possible quality for drinking. One of the four filtration stages uses the Lewatit CNP P ion exchange resin, which reduces the hardness of the water and filters out heavy metals.