Briar Chemicals Limited

Briar Chemicals traces its manufacturing heritage to 1955, when May & Baker established a crop protection production site on Sweet Briar Road, Norwich. Under successive owners including Rhone-Poulenc, Aventis CropScience and Bayer CropScience, the site became Bayer’s largest UK manufacturing facility, producing herbicides and a veterinary treatment for cattle and sheep. It became an independent company under the Briar Chemicals name in September 2012, and in October 2022 was acquired by Safex Chemicals of India for GBP 73 million.

Briar now operates as a contract and custom manufacturer for the crop protection, fine chemical and speciality sectors, with a 46-hectare Upper Tier COMAH site and reactor capacity exceeding 700 cubic metres. It employs around 220 people, exports more than 95 per cent of production, and is a member of the Chemical Industries Association, adhering to the Responsible Care programme.