Multimedia - Chase Products 85 Years!

Chase Products 85 Years!

It’s a given at Chase Products Company—1927 was a big year. That was the year that C.W. Svendsen, starting with an insecticide formula, founded Chase Products Company, a family-owned business that is still thriving in 2012. And while Carl may not have known it at the time, it was also the year that Norwegian inventor Erik Rotheim patented a device that used a valve and propellant system to dispense liquids in aerosol form. Less than 20 years later, Chase would meld its growing list of products with this new technology, and become one of the pioneer aerosol manufacturers in America.

Initially, in those less-regulated years, Carl called on local hardware stores, selling insecticide that he bottled himself, and small paper twists of a red squill rodenticide. He had already positioned the company to expand into aerosols when, in 1948, the United States Department of Agriculture licensed Chase as one of the first three companies to manufacture insecticide in pressurized containers. The new “bug bombs,” as they were called, were mosquito-abatement devices developed after WWII to protect the occupying forces in the Pacific from malaria.

In 1949, Chase became the first company to manufacture spray paint. Ed Seymour, founder of Seymour of Sycamore (Sycamore, Ill.), had invented spray paint, using a prototype spray gun to demonstrate the painting of radiators, and Carl Svendsen had a manufacturing plant with the aerosol filling equipment. The two men joined forces to produce the amazing new product. After that success, as the number of aerosol products expanded, Chase worked with Corn Products Corporation to develop the first pre-cooked natural starch. Chase was the sole manufacturer of 40,000,000 cans of Niagara Spray Starch before it opted out of CPC’s plan to purchase the plant that would fill its future orders. It remained independent, and became the first company to develop hair spray, and the first to successfully manufacture an antiperspirant deodorant in an aerosol can. Another first, Santa® Spray Snow was developed by Chase in the 1950’s and continues to be sold globally today.

R.W. (Bob) Svendsen had joined his father in 1949, organizing the business and growing it beyond its original scope. He expanded the physical plant and the product lines, establishing aerosols as the core business. R.W. (Robb) Svendsen Jr., followed his father into the business in 1973. With natural strengths in sales, marketing and management, Robb diversified the company even further.

Today the Broadview, Ill., company continues to develop innovative products and packaging, and manufactures almost 900 different aerosol products, offering a comprehensive Jan-San/MRO line, paints, cleaning products, air fresheners, craft and seasonal sprays, health and beauty products and, of course, insecticides. In addition to Chase’s national-brand-equivalent house brands, including Champion SprayOn®, Champion’s Choice™, Kill Zone®, Santa®, Salon Solatte® and others, it manufactures private-label products for the largest and most recognizable retailers in the country.

Currently, Chase’s management team is led by 38 year veteran, Judith Albazi, President and CEO, and Ernesto “Ting” Hidalgo, Executive Vice President and COO. “The majority of our employees have been with the company for 10 to 40 years. Our Quality Improvement Process insists that employees be educated with the understanding that quality can only be defined as conformance to requirements. In the past few years, we have further improved our customer service efforts, receiving strong feedback from distributors in the process. Our two regional sales managers are very responsive to customers’ needs, while the level of inside support from Chase Products has never been better. We also continue to provide 24-hour shipping as well as competitive pricing,” Albazi said. “Chase Products supplies such markets as hospitality, health care, education and many other types of commercial buildings. Chase is extremely proud of its most recent accomplishment in 2011… the first full line of continuous spray system cleaners with DfE certification.” These six products are now available to distributors in those markets under the Green World N™ brand.