Profiles: Company Profiles
Wessex Chemical Factors
Chemical Pros
WN talks product development, greening supply chains and responding to the pandemic with Wessex Chemical Factors’ general manager Hannah Borowski
Family-run company Wessex Chemical Factors has been developing cleaning and treatment solutions for industrial, commercial and domestic applications for over 35 years. The UK-manufactured products are distributed across the globe, and the company has a dedicated website for its marine range, which brings together items designed specifically for cleaning, treating and preserving all types of boats.
Background
Wessex Chemical Factors was established in 1983 by Mike Borowski, who, with a background in chemistry and sales, began supplying cleaners, oils and lubricants to the engineering sector.
He then started formulating his own products in response to customers’ needs, filling gaps in the market identified across a variety of industries. The company now caters for the marine, hospitality, plumbing, transport and leisure sectors, among others, and has a contract with the Ministry of Defence.
While its head office is based in Dorset, WCF set up its own manufacturing plant in Daventry, Northamptonshire, in 2007, allowing all of its products to be developed and made in the UK. Heading up the company’s technical team is Mike’s son Ben, while Mike’s daughter Hannah is general manager. Keeping the operation small allows them to interact directly with their customers: “We love it when people phone up with questions or contact us about a tricky problem they’re trying to fix,” says Hannah. “It gets the technical department’s heads whirring, and often a good solution will come out of it.”
The queries can come from almost anywhere. Hannah continues: “We’ll get anyone from a hobbyist looking for something to clean model steam trains to someone from the MOD needing to remove a particular substance from a floor. Our chemists will always take a look, and many of our bestsellers have come from listening to the needs of our consumers.”
Marine market
The company first entered the marine market in the early 2000s with a Teak Cleaner and Renovator – now one of WCF’s most popular product combinations. Over time the range has been expanded to include targeted cleaners for bilges, propellers and canopies, D-Bug fuel additive, low-foam deck wash and a hull whitener for fibreglass craft.
Wessex Boat Store was launched in 2015, bringing together all of WCF’s marine specific products in one place. “Our main website was aimed at our industrial customers, who form our core business, but end-users, boat-owners for example, were finding it difficult to navigate,” explains Hannah. “We decided to carry the boating and caravanning items on separate websites and social media channels so that we could discuss and share relevant conversations with those communities.”
Blue Bio
WCF recently revisited one of its pioneering boating products, Blue Bio, thanks to feedback from a customer. The multipurpose waste and flush tank fluid was originally created as an environmentally friendly option for use in portable toilets, including cassette units on boats, with a strong colour to hide waste and natural bacteria to break down sewage.
“After a few trials and errors we came up with Blue Bio, which is non-hazardous and 100% biodegradable,” says Hannah. “Last year we launched a clear version as one of our customers who runs a hire-fleet got in touch to say that although the blue colour was washable it was difficult to remove from the woodwork used on narrowboat interiors.”
The solution was simple: removing the dye. “It works exactly the same,” reveals Hannah. “We make a huge batch of the fluid and bottle up half before adding the dye and bottling the rest.”
Going green
most popular products since it was launched.
Over the last year, WCF has also been looking at its existing catalogue to see where products can be made more environmentally friendly without compromising performance. One key area is reducing the amount of plastic used in packaging. “We’re trying to make as much of it reuseable as possible,” says Hannah. “Our Blue Bio, for instance, now comes in a refillable chamber bottle. These are great as they help users measure out the correct dose but they’re no longer single-use.”
There are still some challenges to overcome in this area, however, as hazardous products have to be packaged in suitable materials, and there are further considerations to be made for the transportation of goods.
Collaborative working within the chemistry sector is also leading towards more conscientious choices when it comes to the raw ingredients WCF uses in its products. “We’re examining our existing formulations, most of which are not bad for the environment by any stretch of the imagination, and identifying where we can improve them by replacing individual components with ones that are even less harmful,” reveals Hannah. “The wonderful thing about chemists is that there’s a huge network of people who happily share knowledge, so everyone is quick to learn of innovations in the field.”
Trends
It’s no surprise that WCF saw a spike in demand for cleaning products in the last year. Prior to the pandemic the company had
shut off production of its hand sanitiser as the market was saturated but it quickly ramped things up again when it became obvious that there was a huge need for additional supplies across the country. “We had customers trying to put in orders for 2,000 litres of sanitiser but we had to limit it to 10 litres per customer initially. It was,” says Hannah, “a real logistical challenge.”
refillable chamber bottles.
Sanitiser sales have since evened out but Hannah is expecting high calls for all types of cleaning products to continue for some time: “Anything to do with going on holiday in the UK is top priority at the moment as everyone is getting their boats, caravans and holiday homes ready for visitors, and the catering and tourism industries are waking up again.
“We already had some really good biocidal and virucidal cleaners. One of them was originally made to kill things like HIV and hepatitis on the surfaces of ambulances, so last year we revised the formula by changing the biocides to ones that are more effective and eco-friendly. The new Stericlean VB-20 was tested against Covid-19, against which it proved effective, and it has been very popular with customers.”
Along with this, WFC has continued to focus on other projects, and it has developed a brand-new engine descaler for the marine market. “It’s due to be launched in the next month,” confirms Hannah, “and early indications suggest that there’s already quite a bit of interest from within the boating sector.”
