Covid Creates a Boom for Röhm’s Protective Plexiglas Panels

Early in the year, Michael Pack was preparing some tough measures. Röhm GmbH, the German acrylic glass manufacturer he leads, was emerging from a difficult winter season. Demand from the automotive and construction industries was lackluster, hurting prices, and the company’s new private equity owners were keen to map out how to get a return on their $3.2 billion purchase completed in July. In response, Pack, Röhm’s chief executive officer, started cutting production and workers’ hours at the hardest-hit plants.

Then in March he noticed a sudden uptick in a part of the business that had long been steady at best: acrylic sheets sold under the Plexiglas brand. Orders were pouring in from retailers, offices, hospitals, and public transport companies, which were eager to get their hands on protective shields to separate employees from a coughing and sneezing public spreading the coronavirus. Like face masks and disinfectant, Plexiglas became omnipresent almost overnight, a translucent guard between cashiers, bus drivers, and receptionists on one side and customers on the other.