With a parent that is best known for peddling its cheesecakes and croissants, Sara Lee International Household and Body Care is more focused on making products to keep its customers' shoes shiny and bugs at bay. As one of six Sara Lee Corporation business segments, the company sells branded items in about 200 countries. The segment manufactures a leading worldwide shoe polish and cleaner (Kiwi), air fresheners (Ambi Pur), and insecticides (Vapona, Catch, GoodKnight, Bloom, and Ridsect) sold primarily in Europe and Asia. Looking to unload its non-core interests, the company in 2009 agreed to sell its personal care products business to Unilever.

Raymor Industries didn't get a charge out of the battery business and has moved on to the powders and coatings market. In 2004 the company acquired the advanced materials division of PyroGenesis and dumped its mining exploration business. Through subsidiary Advanced Powders and Coatings (AP&C), Raymor partners with PyroGenesis to produce specialized metallic powders and ceramic and metallic coatings. The products are used primarily in the biomedical, industrial, and aerospace and defense industries. Raymor also operates a nanotechnology division to develop products on a nanometric scale. In 2009 the company filed for bankruptcy protection and was taken private by a small group of investors early the next year.

Lucite International has its roots firmly planted in plastics. The top producer of acrylic monomers (ahead of Rohm and Haas, Degussa, and Asahi Kasei) with quarter-share of the world market, Lucite International has a history that dates back to the discovery of methyl methacrylate (MMA) by an ICI chemist in 1934 and DuPont's opening of the first US plant three years later. MMA is the main building block of acrylic materials. The company's brand names include Lucite, Perspex, and Lucite Tufcoat. Charterhouse Capital, which had owned 78% of Lucite, first put it up for sale in 2006, meeting with no success. It finally managed to bring off a sale to Mitsubishi Rayon two years later.

Cigarettes are certainly hazardous to your health, but the making of cigarette filter materials has been good for Daicel Chemical. The company was founded in 1919 to make celluloid (the first plastic) and still makes cellulose-based products such as cellulose acetate, used in filters and photographic film. Daicel primarily makes films for packaging and plastics. The company also produces an array of organic chemicals (acetic acid, acetic anhydride) used in fibers, paints, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Daicel's aerospace and defense systems/safety systems unit produces inflators for automobile air bags and rocket propellants.

NOVA Chemicals Corporation muscles into a long line of plastic products. The company makes ethylene, polyethylene, and performance styrenics used in the manufacture of plastic and foam products. Applications include packaging, plastic bags, appliances, electronics, housewares, and plastic pipe. Through its INEOS NOVA joint venture (with INEOS), the company was one of the world's largest producers of styrene monomer and styrenic polymers. However, in 2010 INEOS announced it was buying out NOVA's 50% share of INEOS NOVA in favor of a new venture with BASF SE. The US and Canada account for 80% of NOVA's sales. It's owned by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Co., or IPIC.

Borregaard has high regard for high timber. It is a top manufacturer of wood-based chemicals, including specialty cellulose, lignin, vanillin, bioethanol, and yeast products. The company's LignoTech unit makes natural thermoplastics (LignoPol) as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics. It also produces natural acids (SoftAcid). Its ChemCell unit is Europe's leading producer of specialty cellulose (a natural polymer) and also produces chloralkali chemicals such as caustic soda. Its Borregaard Synthesis unit produces fine chemicals for the pharmaceuticals industry and diphenols used in agrochemicals.

The Sun Products Corporation (formerly Huish Detergents) believes sunlight is truly the best disinfectant. The company makes laundry detergents and household cleaning products, such as floor and glass cleaners, oxygenated stain removers, prewash formulas, antibacterial soaps, bleach, and fabric softeners under the Sun brand name. It's also one of the largest US contract manufacturers of private-label brands for major retailers and makes personal care products under the White Rain brand. The company expanded in 2008 when its parent Vestar Capital Partners acquired Unilever's North American laundry brands (All, Wisk, Sunlight, Surf, and Snuggle) and merged the two businesses to form The Sun Products Corporation.

If you are going by sea Hempel would like to go with you. The company makes paint and coatings for ships, shipping containers, yachts. Its products are also used on bridges, tunnels, and docks in marine environments. Hempel sells decorative paint for home and office mostly in Asia and the Middle East. Hempel has nearly 30 factories and 250 distribution centers worldwide along with about 50 sales offices for operations in more than 80 countries. Most of its customers are in oil and gas, civil construction, rail transport, power generation, and chemical plants. J.C. Hempel founded the company that bears his name in 1917.

Diversified Chemical Technologies is a manufacturer of specialty chemical products for the automotive, consumer packaging, electronics, steel, and transportation industries. The company operates through subsidiaries Adhesive Systems (hot melt, pressure sensitive, and water based adhesives), Coat-It (polymer chemicals), and Diversified Chemical Technologies (industrial cleaners). Its Paperworks unit distributes paper and other office supply products. Diversified Chemical Technologies has marketing partnerships with Xerox (paper products) and Procter & Gamble (cleaning products). It has facilities in the US and South Korea and distribution subsidiaries in Europe and South America.

If you want to paint the town red, it's a "Dunn" deal. From two manufacturing facilities in California and Arizona, Dunn-Edwards makes numerous paints and coatings, as well as paint-related products ranging from ladders to spray equipment. The company operates 100 retail outlets and caters to architects, designers, home builders, and property managers in the Southwest; it also serves do-it-yourselfers, though professionals account for 90% of sales. Founded in 1925 by Frank Dunn, Dunn-Edwards is owned lock, stock, and bucket by the employees and the Edwards family. Among the places coated with Dunn-Edwards paint are the Staples Center and Mann's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

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