History

The Velsicol Eesti AS manufacturing facility is located in northeast Estonia in the Ida Virumaa region, 156 km east of Tallinn, the nation’s capitol. The facility was once part of RASKiviter, a chemical manufacturing conglomerate. When the Republic of Estonia became an independent nation and assumed ownership of RASKiviter, the company began selling benzoic acid to a distributor serving the United States. One of its initial customers was Velsicol. Interested in expanding its international presence in this important chemistry, Velsicol soon became both a supplier and customer of RASKiviter – shipping production material to the facility and purchasing the finished benzoic acid.

In 1994, the Republic of Estonia privatized two operations of RASKiviter. One was its benzoic plant. Velsicol and the Republic of Estonia signed a joint venture agreement in February 1995 to purchase the benzoic manufacturing plant– the first significant foreign investment in the nation’s chemistry industry.

With Velsicol resources and technologies available, Velsicol Eesti AS employees rapidly transformed their facility into one meeting global standards in chemistry manufacturing, safety and quality. The plant site was improved, the administrative building refurbished and new management systems put into place. In 1996, just one year after the joint venture was signed, Velsicol Eesti achieved ISO 9002 certification, becoming the first chemical manufacturing plant in Estonia to earn this internationally recognized quality standard. In 1998, Velsicol became the sole owner of Velsicol Eesti AS.