I was clearing out old business cards today. I must have thrown out about a hundred. There were old cards with company names which no longer exist in petrochemicals: Amoco, Kosa, Hoechst, ICI …
But there were classic moments in petrochemical history recorded in the company names on those cards which will always live in our memories. Which one of us can’t remember where we were when we heard about the inexplicable rebranding of the German company Aral as Arsol Aromatics? And who doesn’t regret the renaming of the much-loved Dutch chemical company Ramhol? Then there are some major company names which just don’t translate well into English. One thinks of the Turkish company Arcelik, or the steel giant Arcelor.
What about the Russian petrochemical company Nizhnekamskneftekhim?
Now that's a company I won't be able to pronounce much less spell. You definitely need to keep their business card around if you don't want to misspell their name.