International chemicals company BASF has appointed Benoit Fricard South Africa MD and Southern Africa country cluster head.
He joined the organisation in 2002 and most recently held the position of BASF South America performance materials director.
BASF this year reorganised its market area focus on the African continent, with operations divided into four country clusters – Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa and North-West Africa.
As country cluster head for Southern Africa, Fricard will lead the operations in the region, focusing on the strategic plan for operational excellence and local customer centricity. He will be based at the BASF offices in Midrand.
BASF was established in South Africa 50 years ago and comprises five companies with main locations in Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
BASF has five productions sites, including an automotive emissions catalysts production site in Port Elizabeth and a dispersions production plant in Durban, which is producing and exporting acrylic dispersions.
Other sites include a construction chemicals production site in Westonaria and an industrial coatings site in Vanderbijlpark, both in Gauteng.
Since 2013, BASF Agricultural Specialties, formerly known as Becker-Underwood, situated in Durban, has also formed part of the South African business profile.
BASF has a staff complement of around 1 000 people in South Africa.
In 2015, BASF Zambia, a sales organisation with focus on the agriculture and mining business, was inaugurated in Lusaka, Zambia.