When Monument was founded in 2010, our main competencies focused on Custom Manufacturing. But from the beginning, we saw excellent opportunities to grow the product side of our U.S. business as well. We started supplying acetone derivatives to the market, and today, Monument is a world-leading producer of this product portfolio – setting market standards on quality and service with our state-of-the-art production setup and operation on the Houston ship channel.

Similarly, in Europe, for over a decade, the Monument Belgium team has worked across functions to perfect the art of producing successful products.

“Key to our success was working closely with customers and our departments to identify and pursue new opportunities,” said Jon-Paul Leduc, Business Development Manager, Europe. “We set out to differentiate ourselves from other chemical producers by being flexible when pursuing those new market opportunities – and by offering a high degree of customer service in logistics, lab support, and quality assurance while delivering high-purity solvents. Our ultimate aim was to become THE high-purity solvents producer for top industry segments, such as Pharma, Fragrance, and Electronics.”

A major step in realizing this vision in Europe has been our success with THF (Tetrahydrofuran). In 2014, the Kallo, Belgium site began producing THF to help meet growing market demand by partnering long-term with a supplier of a raw material stream. In the beginning, the marketing and production teams focused on lower-volume runs for technical applications to obtain market share. However, the intention from the start was to take all the preparation steps necessary to supply the top segments in the industry.

“Luck is What Happens when Preparation Meets Opportunity”

Roman philosopher Seneca coined this phrase over two centuries ago – and today, it applies perfectly to our THF success story.

Our preparation focused on the production of high-purity THF for the pharmaceutical market. THF is used in a range of pharma applications for the reaction that initiates the active ingredients in medicines. Not surprisingly, the purity requirements for THF in these applications are much higher and more precise than those for the industrial.

The R&D team worked with the Operations team – making gradual improvements to product purity – until pharma customers were delighted with the pristine quality and excellent results in their applications, as well as with the responsiveness and service of the Monument organization.

“Eventually, our commercial success with high-purity THF led to a new challenge: we needed more production capacity to meet the growing demand,” said Jon-Paul.

The Kallo team built a strong business case for investing in a dedicated unit for high-purity THF production – to transform this latest challenge into yet another market opportunity. After reviewing the proposal, Monument leadership gave an enthusiastic green light to proceed. The multi-million-dollar project kicked off in 2019, finished in late 2020 – and production in the new unit began in early 2021.

“The global THF market was in complete chaos when our new unit started running,” said Jon-Paul. “Major industry players were experiencing production issues and delays – causing massive shortages and problems for their customers. We were able to step in to solve this challenge for both existing and new customers – and sales went up like a rocket!”

In a “normal” situation, it can take several years for pharma customers to sample and approve our product, often getting stuck at supplier approval queues at the pharma laboratories. However, because of the critical situation in the market – and the fact that Monument had already introduced ourselves and our well-organized quality assurance support team to these potential customers over the past couple of years – we were able to cut approval times to less than two months to begin partnerships with those pharma customers.

During this flurry of activity and new projects, the cross-functional collaboration that made high-purity THF and the new production unit successful became even more important. Every Monument department worked together to support the European team’s growing THF production, from Finance to Operations to the Customer Service representatives who made sure customers were supported every step of the way.

Our Next “Lucky” Chapter

As with previous Monument successes, our THF growth story doesn’t end with this chapter – even though it’s been an exciting one.

“We’re constantly looking for ways to optimize production and our solvent purity, so that we can do even more for our customers – and that’s truly the Monument way!” said Jon-Paul. “Every aspect of the THF story illustrates who we are as a company… We listen to our customers and the market. We take risks and invest in opportunities grounded in smart expertise and research. We work together across teams and functions to transform those opportunities into wins – for Monument and our customers. And we keep finding ways to do it better.”