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NORTHBROOK, Ill., Dec. 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Stepan Company (NYSE: SCL) today announced that it has successfully closed the previously disclosed sale of its manufacturing assets located in Lake Providence, LA. This transaction follows Stepan’s most recent divestiture of its plant in the Philippines, representing the Company’s ongoing footprint optimization efforts and focus on core growth opportunities.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Corporate Profile

Stepan Company is a major manufacturer of specialty and intermediate chemicals used in a broad range of industries. Stepan is a leading merchant producer of surfactants, which are the key ingredients in consumer and industrial cleaning and disinfection compounds and in agricultural and oilfield solutions. The Company is also a leading supplier of polyurethane polyols used in the expanding thermal insulation market, and CASE (Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants, and Elastomers) industries.

Headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, Stepan utilizes a network of modern production facilities located in North and South America, Europe and Asia. 

The Company’s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol SCL. For more information about Stepan Company please visit the Company online at www.stepan.com 

More information about Stepan’s sustainability program can be found on the Sustainability page at www.stepan.com 

Certain information in this news release consists of forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements include statements about Stepan Company’s plans, objectives, strategies, financial performance and outlook, trends, the amount and timing of future cash distributions, prospects or future events and involve known and unknown risks that are difficult to predict. As a result, Stepan Company’s actual financial results, performance, achievements or prospects may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as “may,” “could,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “seek,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “guidance,” “predict,” “potential,” “continue,” “likely,” “will,” “would,” “should,” “illustrative” and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by Stepan Company and its management based on their knowledge and understanding of the business and industry, are inherently uncertain. These statements are not guarantees of future performance, and stockholders should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

There are a number of risks, uncertainties and other important factors, many of which are beyond Stepan Company’s control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. Such risks, uncertainties and other important factors include, among other factors, the risks, uncertainties and factors described in Stepan Company’s Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K reports and exhibits to those reports, and include (but are not limited to) risks and uncertainties related to accidents, unplanned production shutdowns or disruptions in manufacturing facilities; reduced demand due to customer product reformulations or new technologies; our inability to successfully develop or introduce new products; compliance with laws; our ability to identify suitable acquisition candidates and successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; global competition; volatility of raw material and energy costs and supply; disruptions in transportation or significant changes in transportation costs; downturns in certain industries and general economic downturns; international business risks, including currency exchange rate fluctuations, legal restrictions and taxes; unfavorable resolution of litigation against us; maintaining and protecting intellectual property rights; our ability to access capital markets; global political, military, security or other instability; costs related to expansion or other capital projects; interruption or breaches of information technology systems; our ability to retain executive management and key personnel; and our debt covenants.

These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and Stepan Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Stepan Company

The Maritimes suffered through intense drought conditions this summer that left farmers with lower crop yields and, in some cases. feeling already set back as they look ahead to the coming year.

Among those who saw lower yields is Kent Coates, owner of Nature’s Route Farm near Sackville in southeastern New Brunswick.

“We’ve got about half as much storage crop going into the storage facilities as we would have normally had or as we wanted,” said Coates, whose farm produces carrots and potatoes, among other vegetables,

Coates said he’s used to relying on 20 to 25 millimetres of rain a week from mid-June to mid-September, but this year the area didn’t get 30 mm that entire stretch.

In what proved a difficult twist, Coates had a record year for sales, and he couldn’t fulfil them all.

“We’ve got a whole bunch of new clients on board, and now we don’t have enough product to hold us through the winter. So it’s rather unfortunate.”

Elsewhere in the Maritimes, potato growers took a hit.

Greg Donald, the general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board, said that across the Island, yield was down between 15 and 20 per cent and for some farms, 30 per cent.

“We had very little rain and it was hot, dry, windy and it was, I’ll say, a stark reminder how vulnerable we are … when we get conditions like that,” Donald said.

Look at new year

Coates hopes for a better 2026 season but having to constantly irrigate has set him back for next year.

He didn’t get the time to cultivate his farm, meaning the ground isn’t ready to go for next season.

He’ll also start with no vegetables in storage for customers. 

“We’re anticipating 2026 to be much more challenging to start off than 2025. We didn’t have enough time to get some strategic projects done last summer because we were watering so much.”

Coates said the water table is low after he used irrigation ponds on his crops. Half a week’s worth of water is left in one pond, and the other pond is still below where it should be.

For P.E.I., Donald said about 10 per cent of potato crops are irrigated.

He said more potatoes could be irrigated, but the startup cost for a system could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there’s no guarantee of usefulness.

“Some years, we don’t need irrigation and other years we do — like last summer — and other years, you know, you only use a little bit,” said Donald.

Some squash varieties ‘did pretty good’

Nova Scotia farmer Danny Dill made some observations during the drought conditions in Windsor.

Dill, the owner of Dill Family Farm, said different varieties of gourds and squash with shorter maturity time fared better.

“Some did pretty good and what I noticed, which may be a trend for next year, the future if we’re going to go through this, is some of these varieties only take 85, 90 days to maturity,” he said.

Varieties that take more than 110 days to mature didn’t fare as well. He thinks it’s because the shorter-growth plants established themselves better in the soil before the drought came.

The 61-year-old Dill hasn’t seen farming conditions this dry in his life, and it especially affected the giant pumpkins he grows.

“They only got about half the size they usually do … I guess that they were in the 500 to 700-pound range, where they could be 1,200 pounds or bigger.”