History
In more than 200 years, a chemical manufacturing plant in Switzerland has become an internationally active, diversified industrial company with the founding families as strong anchor shareholders.
The Chemicals division acquires Sorbead India and Swambe Chemicals, based in Vadodara, India.
Perlen Papier AG celebrates its 150th anniversary in September with various festivities.
The new coating plant of the Packaging Division in Brazil starts operations.
The Chemistry Division moves to its new headquarter in Rueti near Zurich in Switzerland. Besides the central functions the production of deuterated solvents is located in the premises.
The Packaging Division expands to Latin America with the acquisition of a majority shareholding in Sekoya of Brazil. Sekoya is a long-standing CPH distribution partner, and has its own finishing plant in Anapolis.
The Paper Division takes over the paper recycling and the waste paper sorting facility of Papierfabrik Utzenstorf, which ceases its own production at the end of the year.
The Chemistry Division constructs a new manufacturing facility in Bosnia-Herzegovina to produce molecular sieve powders, chromatography gels and special zeolites.
The Chemistry Division's Uetikon operating site is sold to Canton Zurich, which plans to use it to build a new secondary school.
The Chemistry Division acquires a majority shareholdfing in molecular sieve producer Jiangsu ALSIO Technology of China.
The Packaging Division expands to China with the construction in Suzhou of a new coating plant for pharmaceutical films.
The Paper Division helps establish the new Renergia waste incinerator facility for Central Switzerland, which is located close to its Perlen paper factory. The division uses steam from the Renergia facility to dry its paper rolls, substantially reducing its carbon emissions.
The Paper Division puts its new PM7 paper machine into operation. The PM7 is the most advanced paper machine in Continental Europe, and can produce up to 360 000 tonnes of newsprint a year.
The Packaging Division acquires PVC film manufacturer ac-Folien of Müllheim, Germany and thereby becomes an integrated supplier of PVC and PVdC films.
The shares of CPH Chemie + Papier Holding AG are listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange.
Zeochem is founded as a joint venture with UCI in Louisville (USA), internationalizing CPH's molecular sieve business, which has been conducted in Uetikon since 1973. CPH acquires the joint venture in full in 1997.
The corporate structure is modified with the founding of CPH Chemie + Papier Holding AG in Lucerne.
Based on an idea of coating packaging paper with plastics, the Packaging Division is given its own plastic coating plant in Perlen. The division goes on to focus its activities on combining various plastic films from 1968 onwards.
Gebrüder Schnorf becomes the Aktiengesellschaft Chemische Fabrik Uetikon. By the turn of the century the chemicals factory is the biggest in Switzerland, with a workforce of some 200 personnel. The company has a 50% share of the Swiss sulphuric acid market and a 25% share of its fertilizer market. It is also the only supplier of salt, saltpeter and mixed acids.
The Schnorf family diversifies, acquiring the Perlen paper factory (founded in 1872) as a related field within the chemical-technical process industry.
The Schnorf brothers set up a chemicals factory in Uetikon on Lake Zurich and begin to produce sulphuric acid and iron and copper sulphates. The factory is steadily enlarged over the subsequent decades by reclaiming land from the lake, and the company expands into soda and fertilizer production.