A blow-by-blow account of EPC United Kingdom's affairs are explosive -- literally. The company has three primary units: explosives (ammonium nitrate, detonators and blasting accessories, nitroglycerin, slurry explosives), additives (fuel additives), and blasting services (environmental impact analysis, consulting, drilling, and supervision). The company, formerly called Exchem, is part of the EPC Groupe (Soci鴩 Anonyme d'Explosifs et de Produits Chimique, or EPC) and is a top commercial blasting company in the UK. Its explosives are used in shotholes in quarries, civil engineering tunnels, and deep mines.

Vertellus Specialties manufactures chemicals for the agricultural, nutritional, pharmaceutical, personal care, and performance material markets. The company's Agriculture and Nutrition Specialties division's products include pyridine, picolines, and vitamin B-3. Vertellus' Specialty Materials operations include the manufacture of DEET (a primary ingredient in mosquito repellent), pharmaceutical intermediates, as well as castor and citrate polymer additives for use in plastics, adhesives, coatings, and sealants. It operates manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America. Investment firm Wind Point Partners owns Vertellus.

Beardow & Adams is constantly seeking out and creating sticky situations for itself. The company, known as Beardow Adams, is a hot melt adhesives manufacturer, whose products are used in such activities as bookbinding, woodworking, adhering labels to cans, bottles, and refrigerators, and sealing up the tops of cereal boxes. Hot melts are also used in the assembly of products ranging from consumer appliances to automobiles. Its products are distributed worldwide. Beardow Adams was established in 1977 by chairman and managing director Bob Adams and his partner, Len Beardow.

General Magnaplate is one slick, out-of-this-world company. Magnaplate makes coatings that increase the performance of metals. Every NASA vehicle sent into space has had parts coated by Magnaplate. The company's products include HI-T-LUBE (a Guinness record holder as the most slippery solid in the world), TUFRAM coating (used to machine aluminum), and many different basic metal coatings used by the food processing, packaging, electronics, aerospace, and other industries. These coatings significantly increase the durability and lubricity of ferrous and nonferrous metals. The company is controlled by the family of founder and chairman Charles Covino, including his daughter, CEO Candida Aversenti.

Borregaard has high regard for high timber. It is a top manufacturer of wood-based chemicals, including specialty cellulose, lignin, vanillin, bioethanol, and yeast products. The company's LignoTech unit makes natural thermoplastics (LignoPol) as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics. It also produces natural acids (SoftAcid). Its ChemCell unit is Europe's leading producer of specialty cellulose (a natural polymer) and also produces chloralkali chemicals such as caustic soda. Its Borregaard Synthesis unit produces fine chemicals for the pharmaceuticals industry and diphenols used in agrochemicals.

Viridas (formerly Caldwell Investments) has decided to give up its textile business in order to help stop global warming. Helping to replace fossil fuels, the company specializes in supplying Crude Jatropha Oil to the biodiesel industry, focusing on the South American, European, and US markets. Its Viridas Brasil Agronegocios subsidiary is developing a trial plantation for producing the oil in Belo Horizonte, before implementing an industrial-scale plantation in Brazil's northeastern region.

General Chemical Industrial Products makes soda, but don't be tempted to take a drink. The company produces soda ash, which is a raw ingredient in the manufacture of everything from glass to soap and detergent to textiles. General Chemical's lone production facility and mine are located in Wyoming; the company owns 75% of the facility, with glass container manufacturer Owens-Illinois owning the rest. In 2008 General Chemical acquired the mica production assets of Zemex. Soon after that deal, Tata Chemicals bought the company for about $1 billion, at which point Zemex was spun off to General Chemical's shareholders.

Hawkeye Energy Holdings sure hopes you have. Operating through affiliates Hawkeye Renewables, Hawkeye Growth, and Hawkeye Gold, the ethanol maker runs two production facilities in Iowa from which it produces approximately 215 million gallons annually. Like most ethanol producers, Hawkeye Energy also markets distiller grains (a by-product of the manufacturing process) as animal feed. Private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) acquired 80% of the company, formerly called Iowa Falls Ethanol Plant, in 2006.

S.C. Johnson & Son helped to replace the flyswatter with the spray can. The company is one of the world's largest makers of consumer chemical products, including Glade, Mr. Muscle, Raid, Pledge, Brise, Drano, Fantastik, Kabbikiller, OFF!, Scrubbing Bubbles, Saran, Shout, Vanish, Windex, and Ziploc. S.C. Johnson peddles its products in more than 110 countries. The founder's great-grandson and once one of the richest men in the US, Samuel Johnson, died in 2004. His immediate family owns about 60% of S.C. Johnson; descendants of the founder's daughter own about 40%. Chairman Dr. Fisk Johnson assumed the title of CEO when president, CEO, and director Bill Perez left for Nike in late 2004.

In 1908, Morris Brown, an immigrant from Russia, began his daily trip via horse-drawn cart from Bremen, Indiana, to South Bend, Indiana. Morris, and his family, would bring eggs and other farm produce from Bremen to South Bend to trade for other goods not available in his small farming town. One day, while on the road to South Bend, a man asked Morris if he cared to trade produce for peppermint oil. Morris wasn't aware of its value, but was always looking for an opportunity, so he decided to gamble. Morris, and his sons, took the peppermint oil into South Bend and soon realized they could earn more money trading peppermint than eggs and other farm produce, Morris, and his sons, knew this was a business he would develop, and he founded a company named M. Brown & Sons dedicated to selling the finest essential oils available. The Browns worked long hours and very hard so they could support their families and provide integrity and service to their customers.In 1974, Morris Brown's grandson, Irvin Brown, expanded the business by selling herbs, spices, and decorative botanicals. M. Brown & Sons and Lebermuth Company eventually merged into one firm. Four generations later, we have not forgotten what Morris created and the service he provided. In his footsteps we continue to provide you, our clients, the best quality products and service available!

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