EPC Groupe (Explosifs Produits Chimiques S.A.) is a French multinational company that trades in

explosives An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

and

drilling Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit is pressed against the work-piece and rotated at ra ...

; It is one of the world’s leaders in explosives manufacture, storage and distribution and in particular drilling and blasting.

History

It was founded in 1893 b
Eugène-Jean Barbier
and its first implantation was in

Saint-Martin-de-Crau Saint-Martin-de-Crau (; Provençal: ''Sant Martin de Crau'') is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Martinois''. Population Saint-Martin-de-Crau has the lowest population density o ...

(France).

Structure

It is headquartered in

La Défense La Défense () is a major business district in France, located west of the city limits of Paris. It is part of the Paris metropolitan area in the Île-de-France region, located in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in the communes of Courbevoie, ...

(France). It has ove
fifty subsidiary
companies around the world.

United Kingdom

In the UK it has two sites, in

Somercotes Somercotes is a village and civil parish in the district of Amber Valley in the English county of Derbyshire, close to the border with Nottinghamshire. It is a former mining village and was once surrounded by more than five pits. The village has ...

,EPC United Kingdom plc
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Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and

Great Oakley, Essex Great Oakley is a village and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is a long, narrow parish lying on the top of a low (25 m) ridge south of Ramsey Creek which drains northeast towards Harwich. The parish extends south to Oa ...

, known as EPC-UK. It began in the UK in 1905. The UK head office is south of the A38, at the B600 junction. It started in the UK as Explosives and Chemical Products (ECP), later part of Exchem. It has a 12,000 acre test site on the Essex coast at Hamford Water in

Tendring Tendring is a village and civil parish in Essex. It gives its name to the Tendring District and before that the Tendring Hundred. Its name was given to the larger groupings because it was at the centre, not because it was larger than the other ...

. Exchem had a subsidiary in Essex, Thames Nitrogen, that made explosives.

Products

It produces around 145,000 tonnes of explosive annually.

References

{{reflist

External links

EPC Groupe

EPC Groupe UK
1893 establishments in France Chemical companies of France Companies based in Derbyshire Demolition Explosives manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Paris Manufacturing companies established in 1893 Mining companies of France Mining engineering companies