Brenntag Celebrates Company’s 150th Anniversary in Germany

Brenntag held a celebration to mark its 150th anniversary this week at company headquarters in Essen, Germany.

The ceremony included guests from the chemical industry, customers, suppliers and other business partners in addition to dignitaries which included Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

As a distributor, the company connects its more than 1,000 suppliers with around 180,000 customers worldwide.

“I want Germany to remain a successful industrial nation – with its world market leaders and good industrial jobs,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “From its inception until today, Brenntag has been characterized by a willingness to change and the ability to adapt to new conditions. This has made it one of the most successful companies in Germany, with locations all over the world. Brenntag has achieved this because those in charge have made the right decisions – and because they have understood that nothing works without their employees.”

Brenntag’s anniversary celebrations culminated with yesterday’s ceremony in the Grand Hall at Zeche Zollverein with around 400 guests and an entertaining program that took the audience through the company’s history. This official ceremony followed on global employee events on the actual founding day of the company on Oct. 9, a customer and supplier event, the publication of the historical company study entitled, “150 Years of Brenntag – From Berlin out in the World.” An internal communications campaign with a range of activities was also conducted throughout the milestone.

History

Founded by the Jewish entrepreneur Philipp Mühsam in Berlin in 1874 as an egg wholesale enterprise, the company began trading chemicals early on. Subsequent to the takeover by the Stinnes Group, in 1937 it was named “Brennstoff-, Chemikalien- and Transport-Aktiengesellschaft,” which was then abbreviated to “Brenntag.” In the 1940s, headquarters moved to Mülheim an der Ruhr, where the company’s head office was located until 2017. Under various ownership structures, Brenntag grew both organically and through acquisitions, expanding its portfolio, size and global reach over time.

Today, Brenntag operates roughly 600 sites in over 72 countries with more than 17,700 employee services and thousands of customers with a unique range of industrial and specialty chemicals, products and value-added services. The company has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2010 and on the DAX since 2021.