Chemoxy celebrate 150 years at All Saints Refinery in Middlesbrough

Posted on July 2, 2018

Chemoxy has begun celebrations of its main site’s 150^th anniversary in this a landmark year, one full year after joining Novacap Group.

The anniversary is actually on 1^st November, All Saints Day, and whilst more celebrations are planned, this weekend has seen Chemoxy staff and their families join together to toast the future as #TeamChemoxy within Novacap group.

The anniversary party was suggested by Chief Operating Officer, Martyn Bainbridge following a record year in 2017 and a small team started planning the event early in 2018 with a focus on celebrating family and promoting science. The location for the party was Teesside University which is a centre for excellence for bioscience and process engineering. The theme of the party was mad science with Professor OneSmith and to top it off Chemoxy’s families were treated to a hog roast lunch.

CEO, Ian Stark led the celebration delivering a toast commenting that;

“Back in the day, as the saying goes, most companies took their name from the founders or what they made – ICI, Volkswagen, British Steel! Chemoxy is an exception. Its site at Middlesbrough, north-East England, began life as All Saints Refinery because it was founded on All Saints Day, 1 November, in 1868 as a tar distillery. Despite many name changes through our 150 years Chemoxy values have remained the same – making safety, health and the environment our number one priority, developing local talent, providing challenging and rewarding jobs, looking after our customers with great passion and working with and for the local community.”

“Chemoxy has doubled its workforce and spent over £20 million in capital since leaving Dow in 2012. We have built a new reaction facility at Billingham, so that today we are pushing our envelope of chemistries further,” says CEO Ian Stark. “We have developed a range of user friendly cosmetic products which we are selling to international markets and hope to increase capacity for these products with further plant expansion over the next year”

Chemoxy divides its business into three broad activities: custom processing, proprietary products and solvent recovery. The former two have been the main drivers of growth in recent years, with increased sales of low VOC paint additives and natural based products. Solvent recovery opportunities are growing as the entire industry focuses on recycling and long term sustainability.

Chemoxy is particularly proud of its track record of supporting apprenticeships. 30% of the employees joined the company that way and 25 of the current work force are apprentices Chemoxy personally sponsored. Some have risen to roles like plant manager; the training manager also started out as an apprentice. Continuing professional development is, indeed, seen as a more important investment than equipment.

The company product pipeline is now as strong as it has been in at least three years and possibly longer and Novacap group are keen to see the business unit flourish through innovation and investment.

Chemoxy’s recent growth and investment phase is attributed to the quality and commitment of its talented team and our party was a great opportunity to show management’s deep appreciation of #TeamChemoxy and to celebrate our 150^th Birthday.