Timeline og Bjørn Thorsen's History & Milestones

In the early 1950s, rising demand for chemicals across Danish industries revealed a clear gap in reliable local distribution. Seizing this opportunity, Bjørn Thorsen founded the company as a personal venture in Copenhagen, leveraging the city's strategic position as a key trade hub to efficiently serve Danish customers.

Almost 2 decades later, the company has grown to serve more customers and hire more sales and customer service people to manage the growing trading demands. Peter Adser joined the company in 1966 and in 1969, together with Bjørn Thorsen, they founded Bjørn Thorsen A/S.

Adser family fully acquired the Bjørn Thorsen A/S business. Svend Rimestad was hired as Managing Director to build a new management and contribute to company’s development strategy.

Lars Rønsholt was hired as co-Managing Director to strengthen the company’s territory growth with the Coatings division.

The company expanded its distribution area beyond Denmark, to whole Scandinavia, then also the Baltic countries from 2010

Own manufacturing affiliates, now brands owned by Bjørn Thorsen A/S, were created to address the growing customer demands for tailor-made products which were not available in the commercial distribution portfolio. These are: Customized Compound Solutions (CCS), Nordic Grafting Company (NGC) – the Acti-Tech™ compatibilizer, Nordic Formulation Technology (NFT) and Digital Serigraphic Technologies (DST).

Bjørn Thorsen created its dedicated laboratory for testing and developing own customized TPE compounds and assisting customers with R&D, training and expertise around TPEs. The TPE lab was set-up just outside of Lyon, close to the main hub of the French plastics industry. Production facilities were set-up in both France and Denmark, with Nordic Formulation Technology A/S (NFT) getting its own production factory in Svendborg, Denmark.

As of 2019, the company started building regional presence beyond Nordics. First with Bjorn Thorsen SAS set-up in France, and later with distribution & sales affiliates established in UK and distribution mandates from several principals for these areas.

Claus Adser became the Chairman of Bjørn Thorsen A/S, with continuous active involvement in the daily business administration and commercial activities of the company.

Mikko Långström, Quentin Le Piouff and Kasper Jalander, now Sales & Marketing Directors of their respective business divisions, as well as Kevin Barthomeuf, now CTO of Bjørn Thorsen, became minority shareholders.

The European mandate for Celanese TPEs and the set-up of the Central European Warehouse represent important milestones in Bjørn Thorsen’s positioning as a European Distributor of Specialty Raw Materials and Solution Provider. The company has also considerably grown in employee headcount across Europe, to support the European customers with local experts and dedicated customer support.

Bjørn Thorsen is actively serving customers across whole Europe with its vast distribution portfolio and tailored formulations. The company is also strategically expanding partnerships with selected principals, like with BYK, SNCZ and Sylisiamont in Finland and Baltics, and with Lubrizol in Germany and Hungary.