Bercen Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary

 

 In 1958, Mr. Steven Bercen started a specialty textile chemical company in Providence, Rhode Island named Bercen Chemical Company which became an important supplier to Cranston Print Works Company (CPW). By the early 1960s, CPW had purchased Bercen, not only to manufacture textile chemicals for its printing and finishing plants, but also to act as the purchasing arm of CPW for all of its other chemical purchases. In 1972, Bercen began to develop and manufacture products for the paper industry as an entirely new business venture. Because of rapidly growing paper chemical sales in the South, Bercen obtained a manufacturing site formerly known as Bercen South in Denham Springs, Louisiana in 1978. In 1980, Bercen North, the original northern manufacturing plant in Providence, was relocated to Cranston, Rhode Island. Between 1982 and 1985 Bercen built, operated and then sold another manufacturing facility in Oregon.

 

By 1990, the chemical purchasing at Bercen for CPW was reorganized into the Performance Chemical Division, which functioned as a New England territory distributor for several manufacturers of textile and specialty chemicals. This division was shut down in 2001. Also in 1990, Bercen opened a bulk storage and shipment facility in Kimberly, Wisconsin, to provide better and quicker service to our Midwest customers, and in 2008, opened a bulk storage and shipment facility at Safe Handling’s site in Auburn, Maine to provide the same great service to our Northeastern customers.

 

In addition to the central manufacturing operation at Denham Springs, LA, Bercen oversees quality toll manufacturing by three facilities in Reidsville, NC, Fall River, MA and Cleveland, TN.

 

Today, in 2009, Bercen’s business is now 100% with the paper industry and over 35% of its sales are outside the United States.