Mark Gregory, Group Business Development Director at Norkem, explains how the company delivers consistent service to customers across the globe, through its five core promises of Service, Quality, Availability, Experience and Environment.
Norkem is a leading international supplier and distributor of high-quality speciality and industrial chemicals. As well as supplying chemicals for a broad spectrum of uses, including the agrochemical, animal feed, food and drink, industrial, personal care and cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries, Norkem produces a range of suspensions and stains that are primarily used in the brick and building industries.
“Here at Norkem, we specialise in the sourcing and supply of an extensive portfolio of both speciality and general chemicals, to be used in a diverse range of industry applications,” explains Mark Gregory, Group Business Development Director. “Thanks to our global warehouse network, our chemical supplier hubs can guarantee minimum lead times and reliable delivery of chemicals to our clients.”
Established in 1970, the company is now in its 55th year. With offices and chemical supply bases in many parts of the world, the company is active across six continents. Norkem has followed a path of continuing organic expansion throughout its history, and it now has offices in the United Kingdom, Holland, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Turkey, China, Australia, South Africa, USA and Chile.
The company currently lists over 250 products, which it distributes across the world through its proven network. As a well-established chemicals supplier, The Norkem group of companies has a significant number of longstanding, exclusive agreements with major world producers. This facilitates the supply of the very best quality products, coupled with high levels of service. Global teams work collaboratively to ensure that customer organisations enjoy the highest-quality products, thanks to rigorous and detailed safety and quality checking protocols.
This approach enables Norkem to make five core promises to its customers – Service, Quality, Availability, Experience and Environment.
Specialising in Service
Central to its promise of “Service”, Norkem is determined to be ready to meet its customers’ chemical supply needs and requirements with competitive pricing, high quality packaging and market knowledge.
Norkem prides itself on offering its customers a fast and efficient chemical distribution service across the world. No matter the project, scale or industry, Norkem appreciates the importance of delivering products and ingredients on time, and on budget. This approach has led to the development of a chemical supply company that is active today across six continents.
“As a privately owned company, our ethos has always been to have local offices, staffed with local people,” explains Mark. “It means we have good relationships with our customers – we know who they are, and what products they need. As a trusted supplier, our clients are in regular contact to help with sourcing of new products, which has helped to drive the growth of our business”
As well as good customer relations, the company has spent many years developing close, longstanding supplier relationships and, as many companies will attest, those relationships can be vital in times of turbulence and geopolitical disturbances.
Accessible Availability
Promising to always offer “Availability”, Norkem leverages its global reach as a chemical distributor, to minimise both the lead and delivery times to expedite supply to its customers.
“We have excellent long-standing relationships with fully accredited suppliers, and you can depend on us to reliably source the chemicals that you need,” says Mark. “The key to managing any geopolitical event is to have products available in local locations around the world, so if there is an incident we have the ability to react and keep our customers supplied.”
Whether the company is facing fluctuations in shipping prices and availability, or regional problems that prevent access to usual supply pathways, Norkem tries to always have other options to turn to, so its customers have continuity of supply. This feeds back to the company’s long-standing relationships with suppliers across the globe, as well as a constant search for new agencies able to supply high quality chemicals in different parts of the world.
“We deal with multinational organisations on a corporate level, but we also have key local contacts on the ground,” explains Mark. “It’s important to have dual relationships with global partners and their local entities – communication is key.”
For further security, Norkem keeps a very close eye on market developments and monitors chemical supply pipelines to ensure it has contingency plans in place to guarantee continuity of supply in its endeavour not to let its customers down.
Quintessential Quality
Norkem is dedicated to sourcing its chemical products from fully accredited suppliers and of a certified quality.
“We pride ourselves on making sure we are providing quality products,” says Mark. “We also spend a lot of money on third-party laboratories to make sure our products are compliant with all relevant certifications, as well as for our own peace of mind. Our suppliers also need to provide evidence of their product quality.”
As a well-established distributor working with a global network of manufacturers, Norkem performs a programme of regular supplier audits, ensuring full traceability on all products. Appropriate levels of certification are taken care of by a group quality department which, in partnership with the sales team, ensures that Norkem offer complete peace of mind to its customers.
For example, while the practical requirements of food safety compliance for food processors and producers focus on process and environmental hygiene, operators like Norkem carry the responsibility of guaranteeing the compliance of ingredients and additives they supply. This extends beyond safety to also include provenance, authenticity, quality and legality. The food and drink industry are heavily regulated, and Norkem has a dedicated Group Quality Department to ensure that it meets international standards, including the BRCGS (the BRC Global Standard for Agents and Brokers). This global standard provides a framework to manage product safety, authenticity, quality and legality for businesses in the food, packaging and consumer products industries.
“The BRCGS marque is a globally recognised food safety standard,” adds Mark. “Without it, suppliers would struggle to sell their products into the food and beverage retail industry. It must be renewed annually.”
Norkem has an impressive record of achieving 100% BRCGS compliance across all four of its European subsidiary offices – Norkem Ltd in the UK, Norkem BV in the Netherlands, Norkem SRL in Italy and Quimica SL in Spain. Being able to guarantee the highest quality and safety standards across its entire food and drink ingredients range is a critical part of Norkem’s strategy for being viewed as a trusted partner by retailers, food and drink service companies, and manufacturers.
The company also works hard to ensure that its animal feed chemical products conform to internationally accepted standards, such as FEMAS (the Feed Materials Assurance Scheme) and GMP+ (Good Manufacturing Practice Plus). These internationally recognised certification schemes focus on ensuring animal feed safety and quality throughout the entire supply chain.
Similarly, any pharmaceutical products or ingredients comply with the relevant regional pharmacopeia. Legislation plays a significant part in each stage of the pharmaceutical supply chain process, and customers have the assurance that all systems adhere to best business practices, reflecting the complexities involved and ensuring that all products comply with current legislative requirements.
Extensive Experience
As with many successful companies, Norkem’s success reflects its highly experienced workforce, which enables the company to provide expertise and support from skilled and dedicated chemical distribution teams, situated in key locations around the world.
“We pride ourselves upon our excellent industry knowledge, and our highly experienced and professional teams that fully understand the products and markets in which we work”, explains Mark. “We are quite unique in that a lot of our personnel have been with us for a long time.”
However, Norkem is always on the lookout for new talent and, in an industry often associated with difficulties engaging the younger generation, it is perhaps notable that Norkem is managing to recruit young people to join its team.
“We have recently recruited another three young people” says Mark. “They will be starting on our training programme which gives insights into all aspects of our business. Our structure also enables us to provide a strong mentoring programme, so they can learn from people who really understand this industry, and they can develop their full potential with us.”
Recruiting young people to the chemicals industry is crucial for securing a steady in-flow of ‘new blood’ and it is key to long-term sustainable growth. Access to diverse and skilled pools of staff is vital for successful industry growth, as they replace retiring employees, foster innovation, and drive the industry’s transition towards sustainability and a circular economy.
Environmental Standards
As a chemical supplier, Norkem is firmly committed to meeting the highest environmental and health and safety standards. The company is also thoroughly dedicated to working towards a more sustainable future for the chemical distribution industry.
Norkem’s QSHE Department (Quality, Health, Safety and Environment) now employs eight people in the UK alone, and it demonstrates the company’s investment and commitment to complying with various regulations and guidelines intended to deal with a range of environmental challenges. The QSHE teams in different countries are interlinked so the company can pool resources and knowledge to ensure that the Group operates efficiently and consistently.
One way in which Norkem is helping customers reduce their own environmental impact is through the supply of chemicals from recycled streams, in a circular economy model.
“Due to the growing awareness of climate change and risks it presents, businesses are increasingly looking to reduce their carbon footprint, with many now setting net-zero targets,” explains Mark. “The Norkem group of companies is continuing to work with new partners who are using innovative technologies to use recovered materials as opposed to virgin products in an effort to reach those goals.”
For example, Mark cites Monopropylene Glycol (MPG) as a great candidate for a circular economy. In fact, by offering opportunities for both recycled and bio-based alternatives, MPG has the potential to help manufacturers reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and promote more sustainable practices. Norkem is currently providing recycled MPG, derived from secondary industrial streams, to various clients.
This is just one example of the recovered chemicals that Norkem is now distributing – several metal-based products are also being recovered and recycled, such as copper etchant from the electronics industry, or zinc from the galvanising industry. These metal-based products are driving an uptake in so-called “urban mining”, and Norkem is partnering with several companies that recover products such as these, allowing customers to use recovered materials with lower carbon footprints and a much smaller environmental impact.
Final Word
As one of the last privately owned multinational chemical distributors, Norkem has a proud history of supplying products around the world for the past 55 years. The secret to its success appears to be its core promises that reflect the company’s values of quality and reliability.
Making Norkem your chosen chemical supplier couldn’t be simpler. If you’d like to speak to our experts about meeting your requirements, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. As an attentive and dedicated supplier, discover how you can partner with this reliable, trusted “first link in the chemical chain”.
Mark Gregory
Group Business Development Director
Norkem Ltd
Knutsford, Cheshire, UK
T: +44 (0) 1565 755550
E: Mark.Gregory@norkem.com
www.norkem.com
