Chance & Hunt takes e-lead
15 Jan 2000
Appropriately enough, on the day that the CIM show closed its doors last month (see main text), Runcorn-based Chance & Hunt became the first company in Europe to offer industrial chemicals for sale via the Internet using credit card facilities.
Available through the company's new e-commerce facility on its established web site (www.chance-hunt.com), products for sale are initially targeted at the small customer or retail outlet - car workshops, for example - and include chemicals such as Evolve, a solvent used in cold-cleaning applications.
Part of ICI until April this year, Chance & Hunt is introducing electronic trading `to revolutionise e-commerce in the chemicals sector'. The company says that, to date, the European chemicals sector has been slow to capitalise on the opportunities offered by e-commerce. But even in the USA, the growth in electronic trading by the chemical industry is reportedly only around seven per cent, compared with the close on 150 per cent in the computer and information services sector.
Says managing director Peter Fields: `It's clear that our credit card ordering facility will be a springboard for the rapid expansion of our broader e-commerce programme.'
