UK-based rubber additives firm Birch Chemicals has opened its first international arm – which includes a new base in India, designed to service the Asian market. The recent launch of Birch Chemicals India includes a facility in Maharashtra (a state in the western peninsular region and the second-most populous in India), said the Lincolnshire-based chemical products specialist.
From its well-positioned Indian base, Birch intends to service and supply Asian industries – including the car market – with the products for which it is well known: including rubber additives, cure activators and desiccants. India is, of course, one of the world’s largest producers of auto parts, so BC’s presence ‘on the doorstep’ of that industry means it’s ideally placed to increase their efficiency in servicing the Asian sector, with reduced production and distribution times, it adds.
Birch is currently working with Bombay Chemicals and the rubber (http://www.bomchem.com/) manufacturing network to source premium compounds to enhance rubber and plastic manufacturing quality. The improved quality materials offered by India will assist Birch in further establishing the Birchset, Innovoh, Innovox and Masterox product lines.
“Though we already work within a global network spanning 30 countries, our presence in India represents a commitment to growing new opportunities with the right thinking and in the right way,” says Steve Foster, the Global Business Development Director for Birch Chemicals. “Our Indian operation expands our global manufacturing footprint, and will become a sustainability hub as we will be manufacturing the products we supply to our customers physically closer to them – so things will be travelling much shorter distances. Ethical thinking and responsible behaviour runs throughout our company, and it’s a pleasure to get the chance to highlight that on the global stage.”
Birch Chemicals was founded (as Innovo) in 2000. As part of a group with a 200 year reputation for service and innovation, Birch Chemicals was created to provide specialty chemicals to the Rubber, Plastics, Coatings and Adhesives markets. The company is currently working around the globe with a number of partners in an effort to extend its distribution network to further continents, including the Americas.