NCH Corporation is an international marketer of maintenance, Lubrication, Parts Cleaning and Water Treatment products.
National Disinfectant Company, the original incarnation of NCH Corporation, was founded in Dallas, Texas, by Milton P. Levy in 1919.
Levy's three sons, Lester, Milton Jr., and Irvin, started working in the company warehouse and shipping areas as teenagers.
NCH's original product line included a coal tar disinfectant, an insecticide, and a liquid hand soap for institutional use.
The company began to reinvest a sizeable portion of its profits in manufacturing and research facilities in order to decrease its reliance on outside producers for its products.
By the middle of the decade, NCH was shipping its products by railroad to Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arizona, and New Mexico.
In 1960, NCH changed its name to National Chemsearch Corporation to better reflect its current product line.
The establishment of these divisions meant that the growing number of newly acquired subsidiaries could be grouped according to the nature of their products.
By 1970, the NCH product line included about 250 items, sold under the names "National Chemsearch," "Certified," "Mantek," and "Dyna Systems" (fasteners).
NCH's goal of reducing reliance on outside manufacturers had mainly been achieved by this time, as nearly all of the company's specialty chemicals were being fabricated at its own facilities, the exception being its turf maintenance products.
This acquisition paved the way for the development of the company's safety equipment division, which supplied as eye and head protection gear to the increasingly safety-conscious industrial world.
In 1979, NCH launched Kernite SA, a new trading company in Belgium that sold chemicals, petrochemicals, and lubricants.
One obvious reason for this stagnation was a generally sluggish global economy, in which maintenance supplies were easy targets for the cost-cutting efforts of struggling industrial firms.
Cornerstone Direct was formed for this purpose, offering material handling equipment, first-aid kits, and other industrial supplies.
A new plant was built in Korea in 1992, making it possible to offer a broader range of products in the growing Asian market.
In 1998, NCH agreed to finance the clean-up of the Higgins Disposal Superfund Site, a 38-acre location in Somerset County, New Jersey.
[1] In July 1999, Friendly Systems, an NCH subsidiary, was found guilty in Dallas of selling pesticides for uses not approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
In 1995, a telephone sales representative sold pesticides to the Head Start program of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
Parents reported that 100 children suffered nosebleeds, fatigue, mouth blisters, joint pain and other symptoms.
[3] In March 2014, a civil jury in Harris County, Texas, awarded $11 million in damages to the family of a man kill in a 2011 traffic crash with an NCH tractor trailer.
[5] In mid-2019, NCH sold its Hero Pet Brands business to Manna Pro Products which is part of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners.
[6] In September 2020, NCH sold its Partsmaster division to Lawson Products, Inc. for approximately $35.3 million plus assumption of certain liabilities.