Ashland Inc.is moving its headquarters out of Kentucky after nearly a century.
According to Kentucky.com, the Lexington office will also close.
Ashland was once an oil company and now concentrates on specialty chemicals found in everything from wrinkle cream to boat resin. It operates in more than 100 countries.
Jack Russell, of Russell Capital Management, said the company had a statewide impact.
“They had jobs all over the state associated with Ashland Oil. I don’t know all those jobs have gone away because Ashland has devested of its oil business and other companies have taken over so a lot of those jobs, a lot of them, are probably still in effect.”
Russell said Ashland was a rare Kentucky-based Fortune 500 company and one of the few large employers still in the state.
According to Kentucky.com, Ashland’s headquarters will move from Covington to Wilmington, Delaware within the next 17 months.
Ashland was founded in 1924 in Catlettsburg as the Ashland Oil Refining Co. by Paul G. Blazer. Ashland split from the automotive lubricants business Valvoline in 2015. As Ashland Inc, the company concentrates on synthetic chemicals which can be found in everything from anti-wrinkle cream to boat resin.
Employees whose jobs are eliminated are being offered “enhanced severance benefits,” according to Ashland’s announcement of the move.
Some workers will stay in Kentucky. Ashland’s manufacturing plant in Marshall County will continue to employ more than 500 workers.
This story has been updated.
