Exhibitor interview: Gustav Grolman
17 May 2023 by User Not Found

Grolman

We caught up with Dr. Mathias Dietz, Business Development Manager Plastics for Gustav Grolman, in our interview series.

The Grolman Group operates an international speciality chemical ingredients' distribution business. It is composed of individual local sales offices based in all European countries, Turkey, Maghreb, Egypt, India and China, each supported by technically trained sales staff, customer service teams and local warehousing.

The Grolman Group, run by the fifth generation of the Grolman family, has been privately owned since it was established in 1855. The key to its success has been the dedication and commitment to building an efficient customer-focused organization where customers’ needs are an essential driving force.

What do you think sets your company apart from your competitors?

Grolman Group has committed to reaching Net Zero emissions by 2050.

Grolman recognizes the importance of circular innovation. We believe that the path to net-zero is evidently linked to the concept of circularity. Only through circular economy can we both create economic growth and avoid pollution and a wasteful use of valuable resources.

We are proud to be the first SME in the chemical industry globally to receive official validation for our Net-Zero reduction science-based targets across the entire value chain scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2050 from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).

 

Are there any new technology developments that your company is working on at the moment?

The Grolman Group is highly engaged in circular economy across the board. We cooperate with both well-established partners and with innovative start-ups on circular fillers, fibres, additives, polymers and pigments. Our outstanding offering includes UBQ™, a wonder bio-based thermoplastic made from 100% unsorted household waste, including all organics and non-recyclable materials. Produced by the Israeli company UBQ Material, UBQ™ is climate-positive, cost-competitive and fully recyclable. It can be used in existing thermoplastics manufacturing processes, and it is already implemented across industries to replace oil-based resins. By using UBQ™, manufacturers are diverting waste from landfills and incineration, reducing the net carbon footprint of end-products, and supporting a circular economy.

 

What are the biggest challenges facing the industry today, and how can this be overcome?

The industry as a whole is pressured to undergo a real revolution, and plastics do not make any exception.
Environment (global warming, pollution), supply chains (complexity, length, vulnerability), energy (availability, affordability, sustainability), economy (volatility, disruptive events), policy (regulatory drivers) and geopolitics clearly indicate that we should redesign our models, or design new ones, and implement them as soon as possible.

At Grolman, we want to sell chemicals to save the planet by going circular and net-zero with stable business models. The solutions will come – and are coming – from within us, from our prime level partners, from inside the chemical industry.

 

How do you see the sector developing in the next five to ten years?

The plastics industry is already moderately shifting towards circular models. The product carbon footprint seems to be slowly becoming a game changer. Both trends will boost in the next years.

 

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s show?

For new suppliers who are producing innovative products towards a circular economy, and for customers who are open to work on that subject as well.

 

Gustav Grolman will be exhibiting at the Compounding World Expo in Essen.