Description of activity

The company Zakłady Chemiczne Alwernia was established in 1923. It is the sole Polish manufacturer and one of a few European manufacturers of phosphoric acid (food grade); phosphates (food grade), phosphates (feed grade), industrial phosphates and chrome compounds. The products manufactured by the company are used in agriculture, animal breeding, the food industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the tanning industry, as well as in manufacture of washing agents, paints and varnishes. The technologies used by the company guarantee high quality products and allow it to use generated waste in current manufacture. This way Alwernia is perceived as an eco-friendly company. As regards sales, domestic sales is 54% and export is 46%. Main export markets are EU countries and, to a smaller extent, Africa and North America. In the domestic market, products are sold mainly to final customers, whereas exported products are sold to sale companies and distributors. The total area of lands owned by the company is approx. 55 ha. Alwernia has 93 buildings and facilities of a total floor surface of approx. 44,460 sqm. More than ten external manufacturing and service companies have their businesses on the premises of the company (some lease facilities from Alwernia). In scope of new products and intensification of manufacture, the company plans, among other things, to: launch manufacture of melamine polyphosphate (flame retardant in plastics) used instead of halogen flame retardants, currently withdrew under EU directives due to their harmfulness to the environment; use bone ash waste as the source of phosphate in the production of phosphoric acid and fertilizers; increase the production of magnesium sulphate from 8 thousand to 10-15 thousand tons per year; place on the market domestic magnesium raw materials competitive with Slovak magnesite; increase the production of magnesium nitrate and calcium nitrate; independently manufacture both these types of products and double production capacity from 20 to 40 tons of nitrate per day. The company operates in many sectors, which is an advantage in case when conditions of operation in a given sector worsen. Despite a reduction of use of company products in some sectors, such as detergents and chrome compounds, it is anticipated that in the following years the market will develop well. Perspectives are particularly good for additives used in the food industry and the feedstuff industry, and especially for fertilizer products, as agriculture is subsidized and the use of fertilizers is still relatively low in Poland compared to developed European countries.