The spirit that exists in the Perstorp organization has its roots in the past. Throughout Perstorp's long and successful history a thriving curiosity combined with a vigorous entrepreneurial spirit have always been apparent.
These two characteristics have provided a dynamic source of inspiration and regeneration over the decades, which have witnessed the birth of many winning formulas. The business focus and innovative spirit of the founder, Wilhelm Wendt, burns as brightly today as it did in 1881.
The founding roots run deep as the existing Perstorp logo continues to remind us of the chemical symbol for acetic acid, the company’s original product. The beech wood forests that still surround the headquarter site, provided the natural raw material for the business 127 years ago. Wilhelm Wendt, used the beech woods of Perstorp to start a charcoal-burning plant to produce tar, charcoal, wood alcohol (methanol) as well as Perstorps Ättika (vinegar), which was an immediate success. Since then the company has pioneered literally thousands of innovations and products that touch nearly every aspect of our lives today.
The inventiveness of the founders and the many generations of Perstorpers who have worked for the company have enabled Perstorp to sustain its growth even through tough economic periods. This ability to move into new development areas and emerging trends, such as plastics for the radio and electrical industries of the 1920’s, trendy laminates in the 50’s, and today RME (Rapeseed Methyl Ester) the bio-fuel of the future, highlight how focused innovation is truly ingrained in the cultural make-up of the company. A desire to succeed by anticipating the needs and trends of the times have created a modern chemical company that has expanded well beyond its original site and is truly global in scale today. If focused innovation has been central to Perstorp’s vitality through the ages, what evidence is there of its other two core values responsibility and reliability?
Living and working close to nature breeds a palpable respect for the surrounding environment. The company’s original use of wood products and the plants proximity to nature developed a strong sense of responsibility early on for sustainable solutions. Even as early as the 1920’s Perstorp operation managers were taking steps to restrict how by-products were being disposed of.
In addition the close ties and symbiotic relationship formed between the village of Perstorp, employees and the company developed a strong sense of paternal and mutual responsibility (bruksmentalitet is the Swedish expression for this). This tradition continuesas strongly today but has been broadened to include the global Perstorp organization and the multi-cultural communities it serves. Perstorp was one of the early signatories of the UN’s Global Compact, and prides itself on the extension of best labor, safety and environmental practices to all its plants and employees. “Bruksmentalitet” may be an old cultural tradition, but its relevance today in a wider and modernized global context make Perstorp a responsible chemical leader in every respect.
Perstorp has emerged from its long history as the world’s fastest growing chemical company and a global leader in several specialty chemical fields. Even as a modern research based chemical company it has never lost the personal touch borne out of a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to satisfy its customers. That personal touch depends just as much today on the commitment and individual reliability of all Perstorpers in delivering their promises to customers wherever they may be. Perstorp customer services exemplify this perfectly. They offer one global contact point to each customer, which builds a strong understanding of the individual customer’s needs and creates a bond of personal commitment from day one.
Perstorp’s core values of focused innovation, responsibility and reliability are the DNA that binds this growing and culturally diverse organization together. The unique combination of the three values generates winning formulas for Perstorp and its customers. It is this combination that will continue to generate winning formulas well into the future. Would Wilhelm Wendt recognize Perstorp today? Who can really say, but the founding spirit of entrepreneurism and inventiveness still burn bright 127 years later.
