Chemex International Limited (“Chemex”) is a leading distributor of high-quality cleaning, hygiene and maintenance chemicals and ancillary products. Chemex was founded in 1985 and operates in the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus.

Chemex sources its products from leading manufacturers and has its own  in-house quality control, research and development facilities.

It owns the intellectual property associated with its products such as trade marks, trade names, recipes, formulations and key know how and trade secrets for the use of such products by end users.

Chemex was originally founded by Les Gray in 1985. For 25 years of sustained growth, Chemex has been proud to innovate and supply top quality solutions to many industry sectors.

Chemex was established to serve the £2.5 billion cleaning and hygiene market. Chemex provides a unique service with national coverage across the UK through its network of franchisees.

In March 2006, Chemex was acquired from the Victoria Group by Melvin Lusty and Sean Derrig. This management team has many years’ franchising experience and owns all of
the equity in the business. 

Chemex products are distributed from a modern warehouse in the West Midlands. Enormous quantities of stock are held at the warehouse to ensure that franchisees, and ultimately their customers, are able to rely on a regular and uninterupted supply. Logistics are important for any business and Chemex relies on modern technology and a robust infrastructure to ensure that UK and international deliveries are timely and reliable.
 
The company moved offices in 2006. Based in Smethwick in the West Midlands, the head office is now at Hawthorns House not far from the West Bromwich football ground. The company rebranded its products in 2005 and the outdated Chemex logo and product labelling was replaced with a more vibrant and modern look.

With ISO 9001-2000 accreditation  the Chemex product range has well over 150 established products and includes a number of blue chip companies amongst our 30,000 strong repeat order customer base.

Chemex International is committed to continually improve and promote sound environmental practices. When operating in an industry supplying chemical cleaning products, companies such as ours eed to be especially aware of how their operations impact on the environment. We recognise that our operations have an effect on the local, regional and global environment.  As a consequence of this, the management are committed to continuous improvements in environmental performance and the prevention of pollution.

Environmental regulations, laws and codes of practice will be regarded as setting the minimum standards of environmental performance.
The company considers the environmental impacts of its products at all stages of their life cycle - from design, to manufacturing, customer use, and finally disposal.

Looking back over the last 25 years the company has evolved, is forever changing, moving forward and embracing the challenges of the 21st century.

From Chemical Express to Chemex - The way we were

Looking back over the last 25 years we have seen some changes. Formerly known as Chemical Express here are some of our archived company images.