SF Chem

SF-Chem AG
legal form	Corporation
founding	1917
resolution	2008
Seat	Pratteln , Switzerland
Number of employees	360 (2007)
sales	180 million CHF (2007)
Branch	Chemical industry

The SF-Chem AG (until April 2001 Säurefabrik Schweizerhall ), headquartered in Pratteln was until 2008 an international Swiss manufacturer of chemical intermediates for the pharmaceutical -, agro - and specialty chemicals . Specializing in the areas of chlorine and sulfur chemistry, it produced chlorination and sulfonation reagents in its plant in Pratteln . In addition, customer-specific solutions were also developed.

The activities of the former SF-Chem AG, now operating as CABB AG , will be continued at the Pratteln location under the umbrella of the CABB Group. The plant, in which reagents , intermediate products and higher refined secondary products are manufactured from chlorine and sulfur , is the largest production site of the CABB Group today.

history

The company was founded in 1917 as a joint production facility by Ciba , Geigy , Sandoz , Chemische Fabrik Schweizerhall and Chemische Fabrik Uetikon under the name Acid Factory Schweizerhall . The aim was to meet the chemical industry's demand for inorganic basic chemicals . In the late summer of 1918, the production of hydrochloric acid and later sulfuric acid began. In the course of time, the factory was expanded and the product range expanded. The structural changes in the pharmaceutical and chemical industries also shifted the ownership structure, with the company being wholly owned by Swiss chemical companies until 2004.

With the founding of Clariant from a spin-off of what was then Sandoz in 1995 and the founding of Syngenta from a spin-off of the Novartis and AstraZeneca agro-business in 2000, the acid factory Schweizerhall became the property of the two newly established chemical companies but not perceived as part of the core business . In September 2004, Syngenta and Clariant therefore sold their 75 and 25 percent stake in the company, which had since been renamed SF-Chem , to the Swiss holding company Capvis . This positioned SF-Chem together with its management, which was involved with 15 percent, as an independent company.

In July 2007, SF-Chem was completely sold to CABB GmbH, which emerged in 2003 from the independent business with organochlorine chemicals of the Clariant Group. The merger resulted in a new group of companies with a combined turnover of around 400 million Swiss francs and 660 employees. In its last financial year as an independent company, SF-Chem employed 360 people and generated sales of 180 million francs. In the course of the integration into the CABB Group, various corporate divisions were merged and SF-Chem AG was renamed CABB AG in September 2008.