Ireland’s Chemical Solutions Group, a supplier of water-treatment solutions, is fast approaching the sales goals set for the end of 2029 after a spate of M&A activity and an organic growth spurt, according to CEO Kevin Quinn.
The original 2025 business plan targeted a jump from EU55-60 million to EU150 million. But run-rate revenue is now already around the 125-130 million-euro mark.
“At the time it seemed ambitious but I need to revise the targets to consider our recent successes,” Quinn said in an interview with chemicalESG.
Over the years, the Shannon-based company has become something of a hybrid manufacturer and distributor: you could say a mix of a Kemira and a Brenntag. It is Ireland’s No. 1 manufacturer of aluminum and ferric sulphate coagulants and runs lab services like jar testing and groundwater profiling, while being the nation’s biggest caustic distributor.
Quinn is committing additional investment to the factory, which also makes absorbents, flocculants, detergents, disinfectants and branded products like Septiox for corrosion and hydrogen sulfide odor control. He estimates 55-60% of revenue comes from distribution.
Alongside, CSG is building a new sodium hypochlorite plant, scheduled to start up later this year. The facility will mean fewer tankers, as CSG has reached the point of critical mass where it merits manufacturing in-house, especially given the current disrupted supply chains and the short shelf life of the product. Industrial-strength hypo is a tricky chemical that naturally decomposes into salt, water and oxygen, losing its bleaching and disinfecting power. So the idea of manufacturing, as opposed to just distributing it, was an attractive one.
“The market is very much fractured along the lines of: you are a manufacturer and you are a distributor. Manufacturers look for simplicity. They only want to deal with very high-volume customers. Any low-volume customers, they will sell to the distributors who manage all the complexity around that. We are straddling both sides,” the CEO added. “We are investing a lot in our manufacturing assets, swapping out reactors, putting in automation and more storage in our sea-fed tanks.”
Already hard to pigeonhole, CSG’s caustic business has been something of a revelation, even to Quinn. The purchase of a bulk facility at the Port of Immingham to distribute sodium hydroxide shipped in from abroad launched CSG into one of the UK’s toughest commodity chemical industries. Given there are only two caustic manufacturers left, INEOS and Vynova — the latter of which has entered administration — says it all.
CSG entered the UK bulk caustic market in July 2025 using Immingham and, within a few months, it was distributing 3,500 tons a month. That was before Vynova fell into difficulty in December. The market has since surged, and CSG is on track to distribute some 70,000 tons this year to become one of the biggest players outside of the manufacturers themselves, according to the CEO. While peers are locked into contracts with INEOS and Vynova, CSG has an alternative independent supply chain.
Quinn said he is looking at adding more storage tanks to import other chemicals. And he bristles at suggestions from some that CSG just got lucky, after all the Immingham the tank had been lying there unused for ages and anyone could have bought it.
In the world of caustic, it seems you make your own luck.