Tergent
Background
Tergent is an innovative company that has developed products for many years according to the needs of the market. At the start of the 70s the company engaged in extensive and fruitful partnerships with agriculture. There were strict requirements for sustainable products of the highest quality, but which also produced the best results and were kind to the environment.
Development
These requirements have since been the basis for all our activities. Together with innovators in agriculture and other professional markets – golf courses, parks, sports facilities, real estate companies and more – we have continuously developed our products over the years and found new solutions. Since our products have had excellent results for professional users, we have also produced a user-friendly range for Country Homes & Gardens. Our motto is to increase the value for the user while also producing good results and savings in time and money.
Expertise and product development
Agricultural chemistry is our roots
The stringent requirements of farmers for the earth to produce crops and consumers’ expectations of top-quality cultivated products, have formed the solid ground on which Tergent stands. Together with the profession that farms our soil, cultivates the land for food production and keeps our landscape open and beautiful, we have produced products for optimum growing results, more prosperous harvests and healthy soil for more than half a century.
Innovation with care for the environment
Based on our thorough knowledge of agricultural chemistry, we continue to develop products that produce the desired effect, maintain a high quality and are in keeping with a long-term sustainable perspective. We continuously develop products for professional use and for consumers, fully aware that our environment must be kept healthy and strong for many generations to come. We produce packaging that optimises the dosage of the chemical contents, therefore reducing waste, and we keep abreast of current and future legislation. We also keep up to date with the latest research.
Regulatory expertise, today and tomorrow
Tergent is always at the forefront in matters regarding agricultural and horticultural chemistry as well as pending regulatory requirements. For us, it is very important that our products are effective and do what we promise. It is equally as important that our products are sustainable from an ecological and economic perspective, that they are safe and that they also comply with future requirements.
Our products – your brand
Sound and innovative product development ensures effective and attractive products. The regulations governing chemical products for gardens, green spaces and agriculture are extensive and strict. And we’re fully versed! As such, we can help you produce products that you can sell under your own brand name with the peace of mind that they are approved and effective. We provide you with the key to marketing registered products in the right way within the law. Peace of mind for our partners.
Tergent's history
Our story begins back in 1946, when Sören Brundin, father of our current MD, Tom Brundin, founded a chemical engineering factory in Gävle, which manufactured among other things the world’s first liquid washing-up liquid, Clin. The company was called Clin AB.
Clin AB, which became a market leader in the Nordic countries, was sold in 1966 to the German chemicals group Henkel.
A consultancy company was started, Clinator AB, which then became Tergent AB. Clin was sold and the consultancy business moved to Helsingborg. The consultancy assignments were dominated by product development for agriculture, which turned later on into assignments for the American chemical company, Diversey, with international activities in hygiene products for hotels, restaurants, large-scale kitchens and suchlike.
Between 1970-1976 the consultancy business expanded and Sören Brundin took on a long-term role as MD to the Swedish subsidiary of the Danish pharmaceuticals company Alfred Benzon AS. Besides a large number of pharmaceuticals, Alfred Benzon AS was also responsible for the world’s first sugarfree chewing gum (SorBits) as well as well-known brands such as Strepsils and Lakrisal.
In the years 1977 up until 1993, when Tom Brundin took over as MD, Tergent worked with assignments and consultancy work for chemical companies, the pharmaceutical industry and international oil companies in the Nordic region, the UK and Bahrain.
With Tom Brundin as MD, Tergent continued to supply environmentally-friendly and effective products to agriculture and a long-term and successful partnership began with professions working with green spaces. Trials with golf courses and discussions with green keepers resulted in further product development. Finland became our first major export market.
The first consumer products were produced, which accelerated the rate of product development. We signed agreements with our first private label customers and developed products together with our partners. Tergent registered a biocide to kill moss in lawns, both as a solid and liquid product. We developed weed killer with dual effect. During this time we introduced spreader nozzles which connect directly to hose pipes, resulting in an entirely new way of using products to care for gardens and buildings.
The regulatory requirements for chemicals were tightened up and Tergent decided to invest! The already high levels of expertise were developed and expanded so we were fully equipped when the European REACH Regulation was introduced in June 2007 and we also carried out extensive preparations ahead of the new Biocidal Directive. Tergent registered more products, including pesticides and weed killers, and we made further registrations in other Nordic countries and in the Baltic region.
Tergent entered into a close cooperation with and became part-owner of a pesticide research company based in Lund. Consumer products developed by Tergent can now be found in most garden and commodity chains across Sweden.
Work has started on registrations in line with the new EU regulations on plant protection.
Since the mid-90s, Tergent has developed a large number of products for Agriculture, Green Spaces and Country Homes & Gardens. We are responsible for several strong brands, both our own and those of our private label customers, and development is continuing at a fast rate.