SIA CrossChem – a manufacturer and exporter of exhaust gas reduction fluid to 60 countries, is continuing its further expansion – developing technology and supplying products for new segment customers in all continents.
Unless your job involves transporting goods, you probably have no idea what lies behind the white petrol stations you see on the roads with AdBlue® written in blue letters. They contain a chemical liquid that makes the world a cleaner place – when put in your car, it reduces harmful diesel emissions and saves fuel. Since 2009 it has been produced by SIA CrossChem, the only accredited manufacturer of this fluid in the Baltics. It has been so successful that now the company’s director, Richard Anderson, has a new goal. He is ready to make CrossChem an international company with offices and partners on every continent.
The AdBlue® market brand is owned by the German Automobile Manufacturers Association VDA. It controls and monitors the production, sale and regulation of all processes related to the use of this liquid worldwide. The idea of creating such a liquid that reduces harmful emissions was implicitly inspired by the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in Japan in 1997 and entered into force in 2005. 191 countries that have signed it are now obliged to reduce harmful emissions. In the European Union, a directive on what needs to be done and certain requirements were already issued in 1998. One of them is for car manufacturers to ensure that harmful emissions from vehicles are reduced.
The NDA’s solution was AdBlue®, a liquid that reduces emissions of harmful nitrogen oxides. “One group of harmful emissions is acid oxides, which combine with moisture in the air to form acid rain. This in turn has a negative effect on the lungs of our planet – the forest. Reducing emissions of acid oxides is therefore vital to ensure that future generations can live and breathe clean air,” explains Richard Anderson.
In twelve years, CrossChem has exported its products to more than 60 countries worldwide, many of which (Baltic`s, Scandinavia, Asia, Japan, Australia) have official CrossChem representative offices.
To make the exhaust-gas-reducing fluid as easily accessible to drivers as possible, the company has been building up a network of filling stations since 2007. Importantly, the stations were designed and the management software developed by CrossChem specialists in Latvia. Some of the components for the stations are purchased from Germany, Belgium and Poland, but CrossChem develop their own unique solutions. The company has also developed a software to build its own station management tool. “In our CrossPoint system, we can see all the filling stations data – how much liquid is left in each station, when to fill up, when to turn off the heaters and when to start cooling the stations,” says Andersons. “We have customer cards that are automatically monitored from our servers. So we have our own databases where we monitor customer activity and money paid.” Some €1.2 million has been invested in the design and development of the filling stations.
The company, which operates at this capacity, has 50 employees, more than half of whom have one or two university degrees. “I think that many of them also manage to fulfil their personal goals,” says Anderson, stressing that the work is analytical and creative at the same time – every week they aim to improve the processes to develop the clientele and environmental prosperity.
This article was originally published on ir.lv in Latvian. Texts may differ from the original because they are abbreviated and adapted to the format of the website.