“H” is for Hoechst

  Höchst Aktiengesellschaft, a German chemical company from Frankfurt am Main was established in 1951. In 1965, Hoechst came to Spartanburg in a joint venture with American Hercules Company. The company chose Spartanburg County because it had calculated that nearly eighty percent of American textile mills were located within a 250-mile radius of Spartanburg. The venture was created to provide polyester fiber for local textile producers. Soon Hoechst acquired the entire operation. Over the years the Spartanburg factory expanded and improved its polyester-based manufacturing line to include large-scale plastic recycling operations and polyester resin production. In 1987, as a result of Hoechst’s acquisition of Celanese Corporation, the company’s North American operations were renamed Hoechst Celanese Corporation. In 1998 Hoechst sold the Spartanburg plant to a US-Mexican joint venture named KoSa.