What kind of growth do you aspire to in the next few years; in which sectors, markets or regions do you see significant growth opportunities?

Chemical distribution developed over the last years into a more and more sophisticated business. Growing requirements, like demanding legislation, product stewardship throughout the supply chain and the question of sustainability and corporate social responsibility set up new benchmarks. Ongoing globalization in combination with the exploration of new resources, like shale gas in the U.S., or even political aspects put additional challenges to the business.

Chemical distributors invested a lot to meet these requirements. It was necessary to further specialize on our own strength and increase the know-how of our own workforce. This caused competition for talents on the job market. In Germany, there are several projects trying to attract young talents to start a career in the chemical distribution business.

If you succeed in building the know-how to meet the new requirements, then there are plenty of opportunities to grow the business. By offering a better and broader service to both suppliers and customers, it is possible to gain more business.

For us this means to grow continuously to further regions, like the Benelux or Scandinavia with our coatings division, as well as to increase the abilities to meet the requirements, for example, of the food, feed or cosmetic industry.

How do you intend to implement these plans and seize these opportunities?

On the one hand, we are looking for new young talents to increase the specific know-how of our specialty divisions, like lacquer and coating, surface and parts cleaning, life science and water treatment. On the other hand, we develop our abilities to sell and source on an international basis. We gained the status of a full AEO (authorized economic operator) as well as a "known shipper" to ease airfreight, for example.

Another important task to work on is to improve our networking. We are in the middle of a project to renew our enterprise resource planning, and this will optimize our processes internally as well as the ability to share information with our partners. Quick, easy and transparent communication is a key factor to establish the necessary trust in us as a reliable partner, as we have to learn the needs of each other.

Sustainable growth is always a matter of continuous improvements of our abilities.