A WAY OF LIFE

At Omnia, our focus on adding value to our customers in their efforts to find alternative energy solutions, promoting the conservation of water resources and enabling food security, is a way of life.

Our day-to-day energies, channelled through the considerable expertise of our specialist, diversified operations, are invested in developing products and services to support the sustainable use of these vital resources.

The path to Omnia’s involvement in the key areas of agriculture, mining and chemicals was laid in 1953 when the company was founded as a small distributor of agricultural lime. By 1967, the future direction of the company was decided when it expanded from a lime supplier into a new role – that of manufacturer and supplier of fertilizer.

As the company developed, innovation became its calling card.

Within five years of establishing its first granular fertilizer plant, Omnia commissioned South Africa’s first liquid fertilizer manufacturing facility. The next step was the development of unique ammonia applications for sophisticated farming operations.

Continued growth led to Omnia’s listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1980. This facilitated subsequent investment in increased manufacturing capabilities, which included the construction of a nitrogen plant in Sasolburg.

Since the production of fertilizers requires many of the chemicals and expertise required for producing mining explosives, Omnia’s diversification into the mining industry was a natural step. Bulk Mining Explosives was acquired in 1987.

As its facilities for the production of fertilizers expanded, so too did Omnia’s value added offering in the agricultural arena. By 1995, a speciality division was launched to serve the company’s increasing expertise in specialised agriculture practice.

By the time Omnia achieved “Top 100” company status on the JSE in 1993, the company was expanding internationally, with operations extending into Africa. This was followed by the acquisition and development of operations in Australasia and South America.

In 2003, Omnia acquired South Africa’s largest distributor and trader of chemicals, Protea Chemicals, which provided a much improved balance across its interests.

The ongoing investment in expertise led to the realisation that Omnia had a role to play in the sustainable development of resources. From becoming a renowned supplier of products and services to agriculture and mines, a move into water resources and their preservation through specialised treatments followed.

The acquisition of Zetachem, a supplier of chemical management systems to the water treatment, mining and pulp and paper industries was followed by an associate with one of the world’s leading water treatment and process improvement companies, Nalco, to create Nalco Africa, which will provide an extensive range of water and treatment process services to the African market.

Omnia supports its products with the expertise and customer assistance necessary to help farmers maximise crop production, miners to extract and process commodities from open cast and deep level mines more effectively, and industry to preserve and maintain water resources.

Omnia has become a company concerned with sustainability at all levels; a company able to make a meaningful contribution to our quality of life in fundamental ways.