Brenntag celebrated its 150-year anniversary
Essen, Germany – Brenntag held a celebration to mark its 150-year anniversary in Essen, Germany, where the DAX40 company is headquartered. The ceremony included many guests from the chemical industry, customers, suppliers and other business partners as well as honored guests like Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
In his speech and in his conversation with Brenntag CEO Christian Kohlpaintner, the Chancellor emphasized the importance and the needs of the chemical industry and highlighted the success story of Brenntag. 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. 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,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Brenntag has achieved this because those in charge have made the right decisions – and because they have understood that nothing works without their employees.”
“With respect and pride, we celebrate our history and the people, decisions, and challenges that have shaped our company and brought us to where we stand today. Throughout its journey, Brenntag has thrived. We have continuously adapted to new conditions and needs, driven by curiosity and showing pioneering spirit, while staying focused. We reflect on our past and gain deeper insight from the successes, setbacks, and experiences that guide us toward a responsible and successful tomorrow. In the spirit of our founder, Philipp Mühsam, Brenntag has always evolved and recalibrated. And we continue this tradition, actively shaping our markets as a truly global leader”, said Christian Kohlpaintner, Chief Executive Officer of Brenntag SE, during the ceremony.
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 Brenntag’s 150-year history. This official ceremony followed on global employee events on the actual founding day of the company on October 9, a customer and supplier event, the publication of the historical company study “150 Years of Brenntag – From Berlin out into the World”. An extensive internal communications campaign with a wide range of activities was also conducted throughout the entire anniversary year.
Christian Kohlpaintner: “In addition to honoring our history, this special anniversary and the celebrations are also our way to thank our employees, our customers, suppliers and industry associations, peers. Thanks for your collaboration and commitment, for being with us on this journey and making our success possible. I look forward to what comes next”, adds Christian Kohlpaintner.
Founded by the Jewish entrepreneur Philipp Mühsam in Berlin, Germany, in 1874 as an egg wholesale enterprise, the company began trading chemicals early on. After the takeover by the Stinnes Group, in 1937 it was named “Brennstoff-, Chemikalien- und 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 about 600 sites in over 72 countries and with its more than 17,700 employees services thousands of customers with a unique range of industrial and specialties chemicals, products, and value-added services. The company has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2010 and on the DAX since 2021.