PREMIX HISTORY
Creating a safe society with functional materials
Who are we?
We are a family-owned company with extensive experience in functional plastics. Our history dates back to the 1980s. The founder of our company, Antti Kiikka, is a member of the Premix Board, and his daughter, Hanna Ristola, now chairs the company. Hanna’s brother Tuomas Kiikka is the head of our New Business Development and a member of the Board.
In a family-run company, the decision-making and processes are agile, without needless bureaucracy or hierarchy. Our vision is to be the global market leader in our chosen segments and the most innovative company in our field of business. As a typical Nordic organization, we are professional yet easily approachable.
Greetings from Rajamäki
Premix is a leading expert in polymer modification and a pioneer in electrically conductive plastics. We solve plastic material challenges for our customers by compounding functionality into polymers and offering polymer modification services with carbon black as one of our core competence areas. Today, we also create antimicrobial solutions. We are recognized as a trusted partner with state-of-the-art facilities and experience dating back more than 40 years.
Our factories are located at Rajamäki, 50 km north of Helsinki, Finland, and in Gaston County, North Carolina, USA. The new manufacturing plant will nearly double our capacity and allow us to serve even better our international customers.
Sustainability and safety play a central role in our operations and plans. We are a professional company giving personal service and support.
Jaakko Aho,
Managing Director of Premix
40 YEARS OF SUCCESS IN FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS
1980
Premix Oy established
Acquisition of Teknos plastic business.
1983
The first PRE-ELEC® electrically conductive plastics invented. Commercial breakthrough with products for Electronics packaging (Salora)
1985
Rajamäki, Finland. Own manufacturing plant
1990
Premix’s PRE-ELEC® pipette tip compounds were selected as industry reference materials for automated liquid handling systems.
The 2000s — A decade of international expansion and growth
- Material portfolio for static dissipative PRE-ELEC® ESD compounds created
- Launch of the Concentrates concept
- PRE-ELEC® concentrates for hazardous ATEX environments invented
The 2010s
Investments in automation and factory
- Breakthrough for PRE-ELEC® compound in fuel filler systems for the automotive industry
- PREPERM® material portfolio for functional antenna parts
- Expansion of warehouse facilities
- New automated production and packaging lines
- New production line for the needs of the electronics packaging industry
2020-2021
Growth during the pandemic
Premix ensured the extremely rapid growth of global PCR testing by fast production scale-up and 100% supply accuracy for the key raw material of robotic automation pipette tips.
2022
A growing, international business
- Customers in over 30 countries
- Number of different formulations exceeds 20.000
- Premix won the Family Business category in Finland in the EY Entrepreneur of The Year competition.
2025
North Carolina, US:
The opening of the second Premix manufacturing plant in North Carolina, US. The greenfield project captures the 40 years of experience in developing and manufacturing electrically conductive plastics.
It all started in the 1980s when one of our customers – a leading TV set manufacturer – was faced with the fact that broken TV sets were being sent back to them. It turned out that as the components of the TV sets were getting smaller, they were being exposed to electrostatic discharge while being stored and transported in plastic boxes.
The TV set manufacturer contacted Premix’s founder Antti Kiikka and asked him to seek a solution to their problem. Naturally, Antti Kiikka accepted the challenge and was convinced that the problem could be solved with electrically conductive plastics.
Premix already had the know-how of modifying plastics and handling carbon black to create conductivity in plastic materials. The company had been involved in developing electrically conductive foil material for stencil duplicating machines. As development moved forward, this old technology had to give way to the new photocopying technology. Nevertheless, this development project gave Premix valuable expertise in the field of electrically conductive plastics. Thus, Antti Kiikka and his team were able to quickly deliver a suitable material solution to the TV set manufacturer. And as they say - the rest is history.
Once the solution was found, Antti Kiikka quickly understood that this was a product with huge global potential. Although it was long before the age of start-ups, that’s exactly how he worked: quickly entering the global market before the competitors. Premix recruited a network of global distributors and tirelessly toured exhibitions and events around the world.
The investment was worth it. Today, the company is the leading specialist in the area of electrically conductive plastics. We serve many industries and are known for our top-quality material solutions, and for being a unique company focusing single-mindedly on electrically conductive plastics compounds.