Chemical Connections is an independent guide to contract and toll chemical manufacturing in the UK, alongside a directory of UK manufacturers searchable by process, industry and capability. This page sets out why it exists, beyond the practical guidance covered elsewhere on the site.
Key points
- UK chemical manufacturing capability - licensed sites, process expertise, trained teams - is slow to build and does not come back quickly once lost.
- Buyers sourcing chemical production often default overseas because UK capability is hard to find, not because it's uncompetitive.
- UK manufacturers are dealing with real, checkable cost pressures: industrial energy prices, a duplicated UK/EU REACH compliance burden, and the near-term cost of decarbonisation.
- This site doesn't lobby on any of that. It exists to close the one gap it actually can: making UK capability easier to find.
Why This Site Exists
UK chemical manufacturers hold a kind of capability that's genuinely hard to replace: COMAH-licensed sites, decades of process expertise, and skilled teams that take years to train - see COMAH manufacturing sites. None of that comes back quickly once a site closes. At the same time, contract manufacturing is rarely marketed - most UK manufacturers fill capacity through repeat business and word of mouth rather than search visibility - so a buyer looking cold often finds overseas options first and reasonably assumes that's simply what the market looks like. More often, it's what the search looks like. Chemical Connections exists to narrow that gap: helping buyers find and properly compare UK manufacturing capability instead of defaulting abroad by habit, and giving UK manufacturers a way to be found instead of quietly overlooked.
The Pressures UK Manufacturers Are Under
UK industrial electricity prices have consistently ranked among the highest of any International Energy Agency member country, running close to double the average price paid by industrial users elsewhere in the IEA, which weighs disproportionately on energy-intensive processes common in chemical manufacturing.
Running UK REACH alongside EU REACH as two separate registration regimes - rather than one - is estimated to cost UK industry in the range of £500 million to £2 billion by 2030, on top of the registration work already completed under the EU regime before Brexit, and applies in full to any manufacturer selling into both markets - see UK REACH and contract manufacturing.
Decarbonisation is achievable for the UK economy as a whole at a modest overall cost, but the Chemical Industries Association and independent researchers have both flagged bulk chemical production as one of the sectors where the timing is particularly difficult: the investment lands well before the low-carbon technology and infrastructure exists to make it cost-competitive, and few overseas competitors face the same near-term bill.
None of this is an argument that UK production is always the right answer, and on price alone it often isn't - see moving chemical production back to the UK for the realistic case both ways. It's the context for why the capability that does exist is worth being able to find.
Two Audiences, One Gap
Most of this site is written for buyers: choosing a manufacturer, preparing a brief, understanding processes, capabilities and regulations, and searching the directory by what you actually need. But the same information gap runs the other way. A manufacturer with real capacity and capability gets no benefit from a directory it never bothers to claim or keep updated, so the directory is built to let UK manufacturers maintain their own listing directly, rather than relying on someone else to describe them accurately.
Independence
Chemical Connections is not affiliated with any manufacturer, trade body or government body, and doesn't rank or endorse individual manufacturers in the linked directory. Guidance content and directory listings are kept separate for that reason.
Who Publishes This Site
Chemical Connections is published by Livetech, a UK digital marketing agency that already works with businesses across industrial manufacturing among other sectors. It was built on a simple premise: create something genuinely useful for the sector first, and let anything commercial follow from that, rather than design the usefulness around the commercial outcome. Some manufacturers who claim a listing here do go on to work with Livetech on other things - that's a natural consequence of the site being worth their time, not the reason it was built. Listing in the directory is free and open to any UK manufacturer, and inclusion or position in it is never for sale - that promise is separate from who publishes the site, and isn't affected by it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this a lobbying or campaigning site?
No. It doesn't campaign for particular policies. It's informational and practical - the aim is to make existing UK capability easier to find, not to argue for a particular energy, trade or regulatory policy.
Are you affiliated with any manufacturer, trade body or government body?
No - Chemical Connections is independent of every manufacturer listed in the directory, and of any trade association or government body.
Does Livetech have a commercial interest in this site?
Yes, and we'd rather say so than not. Livetech publishes Chemical Connections and works with manufacturing businesses on other services, so some manufacturers who use this site may go on to become clients elsewhere. That doesn't change how the directory works: listing is free, and inclusion or position is never for sale.
How can a UK manufacturer be included in the directory?
Search the directory to see if a listing already exists, or add and claim one directly - see Find a Manufacturer.
Related Pages
Find a UK Contract Chemical Manufacturer
Search the directory of UK contract and toll manufacturers by process, industry and capability.
Search the Directory