History
EXPERIENCE WITH VEGETABLE OILS FOR OVER 120 YEARS
The Harburg Linseed Oil and Varnish Factory Brinckman started its business in Hamburg-Harburg already in 1896. The founders were the Harburgian entrepreneurs Max Brinckman and Arnold Mergell. In 1906 the company was rebranded to Harburger Oelwerke Brinckman and Mergell, shortly HOBUM.
The Harburger Fettchemie Brinckman und Mergell was founded in 1959. As the smaller sister of the vegetable oil refinery, this company was initially focused on the processing of refining fatty acids into oleochemical lubricants. In the 1980s the company strategically shifted the focus towards the processing of highly unsaturated vegetable oils and fatty acids, associated with a specialisation towards the chemistry of double bonds.
The Brinckman family opted out in the mid-1980s and the refinery was sold to the Belgian Vandemoortele Group in 1990. Since then the company is the core of the HOBUM Group, today managed in the fourth generation by the Mergell family. In 2003 the company was finally renamed HOBUM Oleochemicals in order to enable a stronger international orientation of the company.
Facts & Figures
| 2019 | Startup of additional state-of-the-art reactor for production of polyamino amides |
| 2017 | Relocation of administration and R & D to the production site Consul-Ritter-Straße 10 |
| 2009 | Start of doubling the capacity of epoxidized vegetable oils and esters (completion 2012) |
| 2005 | Specialization of the epoxy sector towards aqueous hardeners |
| 2003 | Company rebranding to HOBUM Oleochemicals GmbH |
| 2000 | Development of acrylate-free UV oils |
| 1990s | Reactivation of the plant polyols portfolio |
| 1980s | Repositioning with a focus on chemical modifications of the double bonds of unsaturated oils |
| 1975 | Development of a waterborne polyaminoamide adduct hardener and its market launch |
| 1960s | Launch of production of conjugated fatty acids. Development and manufacturing of oleochemical polyols for the automotive industry |
| 1959 | Founding of the Harburger Fettchemie Brinckman & Mergell GmbH as a sister company to a vegetable oil refinery |