Fonchem Inc.
Type: Private Industry Chemical Manufacturer
Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
Number of locations: 66
Key people: Claude A. Bellafonte (CEO)
Products: Chemicals
Revenue: ~ $1.8 billion (2019)
Number of employees: 4,300 (2017)
Website: www.fonchem.com
Fonchem Inc. or Fonchem (previously Bellafonte Specialty Chemicals) is a publicly owned chemical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It produces thermoset resins and related technologies and specialty products.
Founded in 1865, it’s currently one of the larger chemical firms in the United States, although considerably smaller than the three largest firms. Until 2018 Fonchem ranked within the Fortune 1000 in terms of revenue, but has now slipped slightly. Fonchem has frequently been the subject of criticism related to the environment, human rights, finance, and other ethical considerations.
Fonchem is organized into two divisions: the Epoxy, Phenolic and Coating Resins Division, and the Marine Products Division.
Fonchem offers resins for a wide range of applications like Abrasives, Adhesives, Chemical Intermediates, Civil Engineering, Coatings, Composites, Crop Protection, Electrical/Electronics, Engineered Wood, Fertilizers and Pesticides, Fibers and Textiles, Foams, Friction Materials, Furniture, Molding Compounds, Oilfield, Oriented Strand Board, Particleboard and Fiberboard, Plywood and Laminated Veneer Lumber and Refractories.
Corporate structure
Although Fonchem is shareholder-owned, it is still controlled by the Bellafonte family, notably by Claude Bellafonte, son of Arthur Bellafonte. Fonchem was formed when the larger Bellafonte Specialty Chemicals (BSC) was split into two firms upon Arthur Bellafonte’s death in mid-2007. Roughly 50% of BSC formed Fonchem, while the other 50% became Eastfort Quality Chemicals (EQC), under the control of Arthur Bellafonte’s other son Jacques A. Bellafonte. Both brothers are notoriously private and known to shun publicity.
See also: Formaldehyde
Then there’s a link to a part of the page named ‘sites’ and I click it. I don’t need to now, because I definitely remember now. And I think I must be stupid to not have recognized it at once. But maybe I wasn’t too concerned about the name of the company. Frankly they all sound the same to me. But when I scan down the list of sites, there it is:
Lornea Island: Fonchem maintains a small facility in the north of the island, and is currently applying to expand its footprint to allow increased production.
Fonchem is the company that’s trying to destroy the seahorse breeding zone.
I’m knocked sideways by this news. I really am, it’s like the whole lecture theater is spinning. It’s worse because the seats here are set really steep, so I feel I might actually fall down and to the front. I put my phone away, because I don’t want to find out any more now, but I can’t concentrate on what the lecturer is saying. All I can think about is the little bay up in the north of Lornea, where the seahorses live among the sea grasses, and how Lily’s dad wants to destroy it. But I suppose I better explain. I mean I have the campaign, back home, but it’s mostly directed towards local island people, so maybe you won’t have seen the posters. It all started – well I don’t know when it really started exactly, since the chemical company – this Fonchem – has had its compound up there for as long as I can remember. Not that that makes it alright. But anyway, I’d better start from the beginning that I know about.
A couple of summers ago, Dad and I decided we would sail all the way around Lornea Island, in a small sailing dinghy that dad found abandoned by the side of the road. We sailed during the day, and then camped and caught fish and slept around a fire under the stars at night. It was really cool.
We set off from Silverlea beach, in late summer, and went down towards the south first, to take advantage of the north winds when we set off. We carried everything we needed inside the boat, and I really got to know the island better, and found habitats I hadn’t known existed. But then, on the fifth or sixth day – I can’t remember which – we got almost to the northern most tip of the island, and that’s where we found the problem. We couldn’t get past the land owned by Fonchem. The issue was they didn’t just own the land where they have their compound, they owned the beach as well, and also the seabed that stretches out from the beach – for four miles out to sea. So they have this string of buoys running out protecting it, with notices everywhere saying that it’s a maritime exclusion area, and anyone going inside it will be arrested.
You can’t easily do a four-mile detour out to sea and back in a tiny little sailing boat, so we were stuck.
Only we weren’t really stuck, because my dad isn’t the type of person to give up easily. Or to listen to what signs on a buoy say. So he decided we would just sail straight through the exclusion area. But since it said there were armed security guards, and there was a pier with what looked like a gunboat tied up at it (it probably wasn’t an actual gunboat, but it looked like one of those things from war movies), we decided to wait until it got dark, and slip through then. That meant I had the whole of the afternoon to explore the little bay just south of the compound, and the tiny island that protects it. And that’s when I discovered the seahorse nursery.
When I say discovered I don’t mean I discovered for science. Lots of people knew it was there, including me, it’s just I didn’t know exactly where. But I’d wanted to find it for ages, not just because seahorses are cool
