On a gloomy December day in the year of 2000, a lorry set off on a delivery from Bury in northern England to Hastings, some 300 miles away. On board: a very special cargo whose journey is accompanied by Andy Jones, among others. What was so important that the management of the company embarked upon the trip to the far south of the country in the middle of winter? It was the first ten pallets of home-made granules, decorated with a big blue bow. If you want to understand the significance of this delivery, you have to look back to the beginnings of the Baerlocher site in the UK. The history of Baerlocher UK began in 1973 as a distribution company, then called "Barlocher". During this time, Baerlocher was promoting its international sales agencies and sales companies. Barlocher UK was based in a small wooden building in Dorking, a town of 17,000 inhabitants in Surrey.

In 1990, the company moved to Bury, on the outskirts of the industrial metropolis of Manchester. The small team worked closely together. "The atmosphere was like that of a modern start-up," Andy Jones recalls. "We were just like a family. Five people. We knew everybody's children's birthdays, cats' names. It was really just one family and the guys and girls, who I worked with, they were experts in what they did. They'd been well chosen, and we all became close friends." The young team was successful, because just five years later, the UK was considered the most important "foreign market" in the field of PVC stabilisers for Baerlocher. So, it made sense to set up their own production facility in Bury to better serve the market and save the customers long transport routes and high costs. In 1996, the course was set for the construction of the factory. In addition to a production plant for solid stabilisers, a PVC application technology lab, offices and warehouses established. Not only for the national market, but for the whole of Northern Europe.

By the way. At the "Plast '97" in Milan, the focus was on the use of Ca/Zn stabilisers for cable production, for which Baerlocher had developed its own systems. In fact, at the beginning of the 1990s, many people still thought that the cable sector in particular would be late in regard to lead substitution. In Northern Europe, however, the change came faster than expected and opened up opportunities for Barlocher UK. New guidelines for waste incineration, mainly initiated by Denmark, meant the end for lead applications, triggering enormous pressure for change in the market. At the same time, it was unclear at that time whether Ca/Zn stabilisers could meet the diverse new requirements. Andy Jones remembers: "Cable producers had to move fast. They ran a race to prove that they were able to produce the right products and get them tested by the authorities. The demands placed on Ca/Zn stabilisers were considered almost too much to be able to achieve." This was only possible with the right team. "We had a great team of R&D chemists and still do. The beauty was that I was able to access them directly," says Andy Jones. "We knew that this was the start of something that if we got it right in the Nordic region, it would domino effect into the rest of Europe and globally, which is exactly what it did." The experience gained was soon to be used in Italy, France, Germany and the UK.

Back to Bury, where production began in 1997. This moment still makes Andy Jones proud today, because it was not least proof of the great support and appreciation given to the British site within the Baerlocher Group. Initially, only additives in powder form could be produced. Granules were still sourced from Germany. It was not until 2000 that the company started its own mixing plant. The first batch, packed on a pallet with a blue bow, was delivered to a long-standing customer in December of the same year. In 2023 Baerlocher UK celebrated its 50th birthday, marked by major investments into the Bury plant. The capacities for calcium-based PVC stabilisers were expanded by more than 50 % in 2022 thanks to new mixing and granulation units. This is a clear response to the expected high demand for solid calcium-based systems that will replace liquid stabilisers in many new and recyclable PVC applications - and a clear commitment to the post-Brexit markets in the UK and Ireland. It means that Baerlocher UK stands more than ever for forward-thinking solutions, and safe production and supply chains for all customers.