2021_digital_v2_Chemical Directory 2021 WEB

PEARL CHEMICALS
single-sourced product but as the
company has grown, we required the
security of being multi-sourced and have
been for many years now. Such is our
involvement in this product that in 2016
we became - and still are - the only
chemical distributor that is a member of
one of the major associations involved
in this product.
Another product of considerable note
is peracetic acid, which we have been
involved in for most of our 25 years. In
2015, we entered a UK sole supply
agreement with one of the leading
European producers, Christeyns of
Belgium. Working as a partnership has
enabled this section of the business to
grow. We are always looking to add
new products to our portfolio.
How has Brexit and
consequent regulatory change
affected you?
Brexit has been a challenging time
for every company. If you are an
importer, exporter or end user, you will
have either noticed a delay in
receiving products and/or experienced
price increases.
The first issue is the lead-time.
Products between the EU and UK were
typically delivered in seven to ten days,
but now we are now seeing deliveries
take three to four weeks. In most
circumstances, it is a case of increasing
stock holding to allow for the extended
lead-time. Obviously, with that comes
added cost. The amount of paperwork
involved has certainly increased and
therefore staffing levels throughout the
industry have been impacted, the cost
of which would normally be passed on
to the end user.
However, one of the benefits of
Brexit for us is that we have noticed an
increase in business from other
distributions who, rather than import
some products with the added lead-time
and relevant import tariffs now imposed,
would prefer to buy from another
distributor with product in the UK ready
for prompt delivery.
In 2018, EU REACH came into
force, meaning that you could no longer
choose your own suppliers unless they
had registered the products that they
were selling. This was a very costly
exercise for the producers or distributors
wanting to register products in their own
right. We invested a lot of time in
REACH and ensured that the producers
that we buy from made the necessary
registrations and, where necessary,
found new suppliers for the products
which existing supplies were not going
to register.
And now you have UK REACH
on the horizon as well…
Yes, another obstacle to work
through. Although we are working
closely with our various suppliers here in
the UK, the EU and further afield to
ensure that we are compliant with our
UK REACH obligations, we also
wanted to control the speed at which
we could confirm the necessary
information, so we made the decision to
appoint an independent consultant who
specialises in this area.
We can confirm that we have
already made the downstream user
import notifications (DUINs) for all of our
products. This means that we can
continue to supply beyond the current
deadline of 27 October 2021, and
also that that we are not required to
undertake any further action until 27
October 2023 at the earliest.
We will use this time to ensuring that
our suppliers far and wide are
committed to complete the full UK
REACH registrations for every product. If
we feel that they won’t make the full
registrations, then we will be making
contact with suppliers that will - just as
we did before EU REACH was
introduced.
42 www.w2bchemicals.com WHERE TO BUY CHEMICALS Directory 2021-22