Growing UK & Ireland affiliate and New Sales Managers in the Plastic division

During 2023, Bjørn Thorsen, who started serving the UK & Irish markets with soft & flexible polymer solutions in the beginning of 2020, has taken a step further into reinforcing its presence in this area. Bjorn Thorsen Limited - the UK based affiliate of Bjørn Thorsen A/S has opened an office in Milton Keynes, UK to accommodate the growing local business and the addition of new sales resources.  

Chris Richmond joined Bjorn Thorsen Ltd as Sales Manager, UK & Ireland for the Advanced Polymer Solutions Team, with focus on the elastomer portfolio from world leading manufacturers like, Lubrizol, Celanese, INEOS Styrolution as well as Bjørn Thorsen own affiliates, Customized Compound Solutions (CCS) and Nordic Grafting Company (NGC).

Working for Chris to further strengthen the position of Santoprene® TPV from Celanese in UK & Ireland and the CCS portfolio of TPV/TPE compounds and sustainable products, Rob Chidlow, former ExxonMobil & Celanese employee, has also joined Bjorn Thorsen team.

Besides expanded sales force in the UK & Ireland, Bjørn Thorsen has also acquired a valuable Sales Manager in Finland. Kenneth Oldenburg joined Bjørn Thorsen as Sales Manager for the Northern Europe Advanced Polymer Solutions Team, with focus on Finland and the Baltics.

New product additions

In the beginning of 2023, Bjørn Thorsen widened its portfolio of pigments, offering effect pigments, inorganic pigments, organic pigments, specialty dyes, and pigment preparations for electronic displays, cosmetics, coatings, inks, plastics, and specialty applications from Sun Chemical. 

As of 2023, Bjørn Thorsen is also the distributor of high-performance specialty polyamides from Xianglong. By adding a range of high-performance transparent nylon 12, Bjorn Thorsen aims to close a gap in the current market, offering customers price competitive materials, technical guidance, and supply certainty, with standard grades stored at Bjørn Thorsen European warehouses.

Bjørn Thorsen’s TPV portfolio extended with a new Santoprene® TPV 101-87 ECO-R grade from Celanese with a minimum of 25% post-consumer recycle (PCR) content. By using Santoprene TPV 101-87 ECO-R customers can achieve carbon footprint reductions of up to 59% versus EPDM.

New Sustainability Report and Codes of Conduct

Bjørn Thorsen and all its affiliates have been successfully re-audited with ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certifications during 2023. 

The company also launched an improved version of their Employee Code of Conduct, reinforcing internal guidelines for employee behavior at work and governing how each employee engages with suppliers, customers, colleagues, authorities, and other stakeholders. 

The new Sustainability Report for the financial year 2022/23 has been published during November 2023, incorporating the milestones achieved in 2023 and the 2024 plans to further reduce CO2 footprint and make a better environmental and social impact overall.

General outlook over 2023 and 2024 intentions

One of the highlights of 2023 is definitely the industry's collective commitment to sustainability. This was the predominant topic both at Plastteknik in Sweden and at Interplas in UK, where Bjørn Thorsen exhibited this year. Nordic customers are actively implementing innovative solutions to reduce their carbon footprint, looking for raw materials that can create more durable, versatile, design-efficient, and recyclable products at end-of-life. Investments are made in smarter production processes, and there is a shift towards using recycled and bio-based raw materials. 

In terms of lowlights, we’ve experienced that the Nordic polymer industry has been following the global market slowdown, primarily due to a combination of inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions. Polymer prices have generally decreased in 2023, reflecting the inflation pressure and recession fears​​. Generating demand at customers has been a challenge this year, but we have been successful to do that most of the time, due to new product additions and the high technical expertise of our Sales Team. 

On the positive note, the shortage and delays on the logistics side have eased off during 2023. We have experienced good availability of trucks, containers and vessels, in order to ensure smooth supply and deliveries on time to most customers.

Stepping into 2024, Bjørn Thorsen remains resilient, keeping a steady focus on long-term goals, continuing to invest in new valuable product additions and resources across the entire organization and prioritizing sustainability. As the industry overall increasingly seeks sustainable solutions and the circularity component in their product designs, Bjørn Thorsen wants to position themselves as leaders not only in materials distribution, but also in generating innovative solutions for industry partners, paving the way for a more environmentally responsible and technologically advanced industry.