
Industry Insights
Q & A with Dan Devine of Devine Chemicals
28th June 2024
Established by Jim Devine in 1986, County Durham-based Devine Chemicals is a leading speciality chemicals manufacturer and global distributor.
Serving markets such as coatings, construction and agrochemicals, the company has developed its own highly successful range of products. This includes, DeCAL a range of thickeners, dispersants and defoamers for aqueous and non-aqueous systems; DeTOX, a series of high quality titanium dioxide pigments and DeLOUR, a range of pigments which are suitable for both water-based and solvent-based applications. In 2022, Devine Chemicals’ building and construction division AptiCem, was launched: this offers a wide range of speciality chemicals including lithium carbonate alternatives, admixtures, dry mortar additives and screed additives.
The company is also UK distributor for global manufacturers including Bitoner, Lamberti SpA, Sepiolsa and AFCONA Additives.
Decades of hard work and product development by the whole Devine Chemicals team are paying off resulting with impressive growth in the last ten years. This success has meant a relocation to new, larger premises in Annfield Plain, the opening of a new Research and Innovation Centre in Lancashire and an office and warehouse facility, Devine Chemicals BV, in Heerhugowaard, Holland. That’s a lot of expansion. However, Devine Chemicals isn’t standing still and this year, Devine US LLC started operating in the US market.
We checked in with Dan Devine, managing Director, to get the lowdown on an exciting chapter for the business.
You’re now making big inroads in North America – tell us about your work across the Atlantic.
Our operations in the United States commenced in January, and this led to the appointment of Brett Mock as President of Devine US LLC, who will be spearheading our ambitious growth plans for our US operations. He has decades of experience in the additives industry and has held a number of senior leadership roles, including Research Development and Innovation Manager for the Americas at Akzo Nobel.
Brett has been joined by Matt Mock, who we have appointed as Account Manager. He has a wealth of speciality chemicals knowledge and will provide technical support and to grow our US customer base.
Both Brett and Matt are based at Akron, Ohio and we’re looking forward to seeing Devine Chemicals’ presence grow in North America with their support.
Closer to home, the Research and Innovation Centre in Haslingden, Lancashire was launched in 2023. What has this brought to Devine Chemicals?
The centre’s laboratory facilities are supporting the work we do in developing bespoke products for our customers and they also facilitate the development of our own products. We can run trials, carry our product testing and demonstrate compliance at the centre, and it has really strengthened our offering.
Innovation is key to Devine Chemicals and the centre provides the equipment and testing apparatus necessary for us to drive this, through researching, developing, formulating and testing construction chemicals, admixtures, coatings, cementitious systems and more.
We have a dedicated coatings area at the centre, which is used to develop paints, sealings, primers and other products, and we also have a section of the lab dedicated to the development of construction materials.
What technical capabilities does the Research and Innovation Centre have?
We’ve invested heavily in state-of-the-art instrumentation, so we can run tests for compressive strength, flexural strength, viscosity and flow. We can also conduct Loss on Drying and Vicat testing, plus tensile testing for tile adhesives.
Ensuring that we had the equipment to match our ambitions for the site was crucial for us.
You launched Devine Chemicals BV in Heerhugowaard, Holland two years ago. What impact has that had on the business?
The office and warehouse facility in Holland was set up to help us scale up our infrastructure and resources in the EU, and it has made a significant difference to our ability to serve our European customer base.
It has shortened lead times for clients in Europe, strengthened our relationships with operators in industries such as coatings, construction and agrochemicals, and given Devine Chemicals greater flexibility and agility in our European operations.
What are your plans for the second half of 2024?
AptiCem has been a major success so far and we’ll be building on that to embed that product range more deeply into the construction sector.
Plus, with Brett and Matt now on board in the US, we aim to gain further traction in the North American market this year – it offers a major opportunity for future growth.
And of course, we’ll be continuing to offer our trusted and personal service, with full technical support, to our customer base across the world.
For more information on Devine Chemicals, visit https://www.devinechemicals.co.uk/
For more information on Apticem, visit https://apticem.com/