Baerlocher continues to set standards in production and safety with new plants for its customers, the environment and also its own employees. As a family business, it makes forward-looking, long-term investments that go far beyond the respective regulatory requirements and follow the best possible standards. The latest examples of this commitment to excellence are the plants in Turkey, China and the CO2 -optimized production facility in India, which will come on stream in 2023. They are part of corporate social responsibility and a matter of course for Baerlocher before the term is on everyone's lips.

From Munich to Lingen
It is also the result of painful lessons learned in the 1970s, to which, however, Baerlocher does not react with resignation, but with pioneering solutions. Originally built away from the city, the plant in Munich-Moosach is increasingly surrounded by residential areas in the decades after the Second World War, followed by the world-famous site for the XX. Olympic Games. As a result of citizen protests, the search for alternative locations for production begins in 1974. The new factory is to be built according to the most modern standards. Success is announced in 1975 in Lingen, Lower Saxony, in northern Germany. A total of 23 million DM is invested here in the first stage. One hundred jobs are created. Here, too, the approval process and the construction of the plant are accompanied by a critical public. After the symbolic laying of the foundation stone in 1977, Plant I of Baerlocher Chemie Lingen (BCL) is opened one year later with a focus on multi-stage lead recycling up to compounds.

Lingen is probably the most modern plant for PVC stabilizers at the time. With new environmental protection equipment, all limit values are clearly undercut and concerns are thus also dispelled. A special feature is the vertical construction, in which each processing step takes place on a separate floor of the 40 m high tower plant. Upstairs, the raw materials are fed in and on the ground floor the final product is packed and made ready for shipment. It is Baerlocher's pride and joy and delights customers when they visit. The state-of-the-art facility also sets it apart from competitors. Partial automation makes the work less strenuous for the production staff than it was in Munich: "When there was a lot of work to be done, you had to move about 20 tons a day," recalls long-time works council chairman Wolfgang Florian of his early days in Moosach. Modernized several times since the 1990s, a new application technology laboratory for SPA applications is built for the entire group in Lingen in 2023.

Back to Munich. There, production is finally discontinued in 1993. Demolition follows a few years later. Dr Michael Rosenthal announces the move to Unterschleissheim. The new headquarters, opened in 1998, is also an example of sustainable and energy-efficient building with plastics in the façade, thermal ceilings and open, modern design. It is more than a building. It is a statement.

And Lingen? The site becomes a blueprint for new Baerlocher plants, a milestone of the time, the most important achievement, and the starting point for the group's future in the world. Because no matter where Baerlocher builds new plants, whether in the USA, Malaysia, China, Turkey, or India, Baerlocher approaches them with the best possible standards for production and the environment, even if the local legal situation does not prescribe this by a long shot. As a family business, Baerlocher has the advantage of being able to think and act long term.

That is the great lesson in every factory: "Going the extra mile". For the will to achieve excellence with exemplary character. In India, for example, a CO2 -optimized plant for lead-free additives is being built, which will be opened in 2023, just in time for the 200th anniversary. This is another example that Baerlocher builds with responsibility for the future.