About us
In the past “50-odd” years we have become a truly internationalized distributor of specialty food ingredients and chemicals. We have always stayed committed to the geographical markets where it all begun in the 1960’s, but through the years the good relations with many of the industries remained, intensified and the distribution structure changed steadily into local presence. Still serving what we call logistically challenging markets, we cannot have presence with our own offices and stocks in every country, but our regional offices and stocks are positioned in such a way that we are always “closeby”.
Practically : our company in Point Lisas, Trinidad, intensively serves regional clients in Barbados, the Windward & Leeward islands, the Guyanas and even as far as Jamaica. Our company in South Africa also serves regional clients in Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi, Madagaskar, Mauritius and even as far as Kenya.
During these “50-odd” years, the scope of activities also changed : we discontinued activities in paint industries & heavy chemistry, intensified relations with principals and clients in the food & feed processing industries. The scope for detergency, household care, personal care, water treatment improved and we focus on “green”, environmental safe raw materials. South Africa has a dominant wine-sector, in which we are active with specialty innovative ingredients in combination with more common ingredients.
History
History is good but we look forward. We continue to grow with our most important assets, our clients and our human capital, our staff. To keep good people on board we have developed a PSI-Profitsharing Initiative, we have invested in (since 2006) excellent CRM software (SAP B1) and invest in warehouses of the highest food-safe standards, good communication and trainings tools. Fortunately the on-going Covid-19 pandemic has not hit us much, we can say we are rather Covid-19 proof due to the type of industries we serve. These pandemic times have also taught us to work in different, more decentralized manner. We travel less but contacts internally, externally, became more efficient and intense.
Modern Management is also important. The Chemelco group is family-owned but decisions are made in conjunction with the regional team-leaders and the global Management Team. The communication lines are short and fast, making Chemelco flexible and capable to adopt to changing circumstances. Privately financed, our scope of business is longterm, both with our clients and our principals. The fact that this approach works, shows from the fact many of our clients are served as lengthy as is our own history!
Corporate Social Responsibility
Consumers do not often get to see our products first hand, but they experience our presence in almost everything they eat, drink, clean and further consume. This broad impact means that we feel a true responsibility towards everyone in our supply chain, to make sure that what we source is done in a sustainable way.
Our Corporate Social Responsibility includes:
- Developing and maintaining relationships with the most responsible ingredient manufacturers and focus on greener, healthier and safer trends
- We are committed to working with responsible suppliers and customers that exhibit the highest levels of fairness both to people and animals, following the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
- Our logistics team works intensely to ensure that we transport our raw materials in the most energy efficient way – we look forward to the day where all container vessels are solar-powered!
- We strongly encourage the conscious use of office material, minimizing paper consumption and recycling as much as possible
Additionally, we are committed to making a difference in the markets we serve. For this reason, we have been donating over the last 50 years a portion of our profits directly to dynamic projects in the Caribbean, Central America and Africa.
ISO Certification
Our broad portfolio of raw materials is sourced globally and it is audited to ensure they comply with the latest European quality standards and certifications. We always strive to ensure all materials are as natural and environmentally sustainable as possible.
Vision
To be the distributor of choice of both customers and principals. Being a full-service distributor known for its knowledge and reliable supply of standard and specialty ingredients and (raw) materials, we strive to be the preferred supplier of our customers in our chosen markets as well as be the preferred distributor of our chosen principals in the industries in which we operate.
Mission
Chemelco is a distributor of raw materials, specialty chemicals and specialty food ingredients in selected markets. We count with a comprehensive product portfolio and together with our team of food technologists we support our customers in the development of tailored solutions and formulations to produce the products they want. Our team of experts provides in depth advice and unrivalled service to meet our customers’ demands. Our aim is to work effectively towards creating added value for our customers, building up long term relationships with them.
