A THREE-year disposal programme recently completed at ICI has diminished its once massive Teesside operations.

The chemicals company, which once employed more than 30,000 staff at a variety of businesses on Teesside, now employs just over 1,000 people.

Most of them are employed at Synetix at Billingham and Uniqema at Wilton, with most of the former ICI staff having been transferred to new business on Teesside.

That was the state of the Teesside operations revealed in the company's annual results released yesterday, which showed pre-tax profits for the year to December at £450m, up 20 per cent on £376m in the previous year.

However, if the £511m costs of the disposal programme are taken out of the equation, ICI made a pre-tax loss of £87m.

Both the remaining Teesside businesses, part of the specialities division, performed well, contributing to the three per cent rise in profits to £75m at the division.

ICI's discontinued operations in 2000 included many with a presence on Teesside.

They were:

l Chlor Chemicals sold to the Ineos Group. The Acylics business was sold to Ineos Acrylics.

l The methanol business was sold to Methanex. Under the agreement ICI will continue to produce methanol for Methanex until the plant closes in April.

l ICI's 50 per cent stake in Philips-Imperial Petroleum was sold to Petroplus.

l US firm Huntsman bought the polyurethane, tioxide and selected petrochemicals businesses.

Those sales have allowed ICI to reposition itself from a high-volume bulk chemicals business to a speciality products and paints business.

The disposal programme was prompted by ICI's acquisition of Unilever's speciality chemicals business three years ago.

The slowdown in the US economy hit ICI's businesses in the past year.

Continuing high prices of raw materials also played their part, and overall, ICI's international businesses saw sales and profits fall by 13 per cent.

Chairman Charles Miller Smith warned the slowing US economy was set to reduce the rate of global economic activity this year.

"However, we remain confident that the quality of our portfolio, and the tight management controls in place over costs and cash, mean that we are well positioned to respond to the more difficult trading environment that has emerged," he said.

Group turnover from continuing operations for the year was up five per cent to £6.42bn, he said.

Shareholders will pick up a total dividend of 32.0p, unchanged on last year's figure.

But next year, the dividend payout will be slashed in an effort to accelerate growth at the group. The cut was first outlined by ICI at its third-quarter results in November.

It will be only the third time in ICI's 74-year history that an axe will be taken to the dividend