The beginnings of the company

In 1949 Ulrich Scharrer buys the small chemical company RETORTE. The objective of the young entrepreneur is to produce high purity selenium. High purity selenium is used as coating material in rectifiers for the transformation of alternating current into direct current.

The Norddeutsche Affinerie AG (Aurubis)

1972. The company founder, Ulrich Scharrer, looks for a buyer who can continue his work. The NORDDEUTSCHE AFFINERIE, which is also involved in the production of high purity selenium, is the company he chooses. Since 1974 the NORDDEUTSCHE AFFINERIE (now: Aurubis) has a 100 % stake in RETORTE.

Island positioning

Norddeutsche Affinerie stops is production of refined Selenium and transfers it completely to RETORTE.

JoSeCo

RETORTE takes part in a joint venture company, the JoSeCo GmbH, which produces mineral compound premixes for the animal feed industry. The JoSeCo GmbH manufactures mineral premixes containing the trace elements Selenium, Cobalt and Iodine for the use in the animal feed industry.

Relaunch

Until the beginning of 2007 the company was still run under the foundation name of 1949: RETORTE Ulrich Scharrer GmbH. The new name, RETORTE GmbH Selenium Chemicals & Metals is a reaction to the fact that round about 80 % of the annual turnover is generated on the international markets.