E2E International 100 showcases how Kerax has become one of the UK’s leaders in exporting

A family-owned business started in 1962, Kerax is the UK’s only large-scale formulator and blender of waxes. Operating across four sites in the North-West of England, forty percent of the 25,000,000 kilos of wax production is exported; currently recycling and repurposing around 2,000,000 kilos of ‘spent’ and used wax every year.

(Alamy Stock Photo)

Completing a MBO in 2006, Ian Appleton, with over 30 years’ experience of Oil and Wax is an innovator and entrepreneur in natural, synthetic and mineral waxes, industrial process oils and derivatives. Since that time, the Kerax turnover has increased ten-fold to £40,000,000 pa, with staff numbers increasing to 80 employees. The company’s growth is expected to rise by fifty percent in the next three to five years, both organically in the UK and internationally and from acquisitions, with Ian at the helm.

Wax comes in many forms with most homes featuring a product that contains a ‘raw’ material made by Kerax, ranging from personal care and cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, packaging, fabrics candles and much more.

As a leader in Research and Development, Kerax provides flexible, tailor-made solutions for its customers which is very different from its often large, corporate competitors. Its ability to deliver globally and enabling customers to return ‘spent’ and unused is what also sets it apart. The acquisition of The Recycled Candle Company is expected to generate further growth, particularly from within the food and hospitality sectors and will divert many thousands of candles from landfill back in to circularity. Thereby reducing the burdwn on waste streams and needlessly discarding usable raw materials.

Over the past 15 years, Kerax has worked with processors of post-consumer plastic waste; creating a new synthetic wax called Plaswax; Derived from plastic waste and Plaswax isa  new wax raw material for use in many industrial applications.

You can view the complete E2E International 100 track here