 View of the company's buildings at the Korschenbroich site | Founded in 1973 as a private company
The early 70's was still an opportune period: there was no oversupply of textile dyes in the market whatsoever when Manfred Dohmen established his company in 1973. At that time, this self-made man was the dyeing and development manager of a spinning mill. This probably helps to explain his shrewd company strategy. There was now one dyestuff supplier among the former dyestuff customers. He was therefore always in the unique position of being able to see things from the customer's standpoint and made sure his sales organization and customer service were orientated in this direction. The limited company M. Dohmen GmbH & Co. KG was formed from this private company in 1975. At the same time, three partners joined the firm and, despite a few changes, three partners are still actively engaged in running the company today.
Dyestuffs for automotive textiles
With the take-over of Eastman-Kodak's textile dyestuffs agency in Germany the same year, the company took its first major step forward. The year 1981, however, was really decisive for the future direction of the firm: a dye range specifically for automotive textiles was built up jointly with Eastman-Kodak and continually extended. Thus, in 1982, the Dorospers A dyes (high light fastness Disperse dyes for automotive textiles), the Dorolan dyes (high light fastness acid dyes for PA/wool) and the Doracid dyes (acid dyes for PA/wool) were released on to the market. Eastman-Kodak pulled out of the dyestuffs business altogether in 1987. The firm then established a co-operation agreement with the Greek dye maker Viochrom. In the meantime Dohmen GmbH took over the agencies of ICI and Bayer AG for the German textile market.
 View of the laboratory | Establishment of foreign agencies
The company was not only actively pursuing the expansion of its dyestuff program with determination - the Dorospers dyes (Disperse dyes with the highest wash fastness for PET and blends), for example, were developed in 1990 - but was also intent on opening up additional markets. In 1990 therefore, M. Dohmen S.A., San Vittore/Switzerland (also production) and M. Dohmen Italia S.r.l., Lainate/Italy were established as European sales agencies, as well as M. Dohmen USA Inc., Greenville, USA, and M. Dohmen Canada, Drummondville/Canada as overseas sales agencies. With these developments, a decisive step into the international dye market had been made. Expansion into the leather dyes sector also followed in the same year. | |
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