Himmel Industries, Inc. 6 F. Pasco Ave, Pasig, 1610 Metro Manila 09175964624
Sixty-odd years past, some twenty kilometers east of Manila in Barrio Santolan, Pasig, where rice paddies brushed against rusty galvanized roofs, HIMMEL INDUSTRIES, INC. took its first breath. The name, a German word meaning sky or heaven, seemed mere fancy then, yet it proved fitting for the climb of its founder, DR. LUCIO C. TAN, from modest chemist-entrepreneur to titan of Philippine business.
In the beginning we cooked up simple flavoring compounds and comforting aromas. Trade in industrial chemicals soon followed. Barely a year in, we bought an old glycerine kettle that looked fit for scrap. Two winters of patient tinkering coaxed it to life, turning out the nation’s lone USP-grade refined glycerine. Local drug makers queued for fifteen years until demand outran the little plant, so a new continuous unit rose in 1977. Under MR. DOMINGO CHUA’s steady hand, refined glycerine found markets as far as Tokyo and the American West Coast.
The sixties saw menthol crystals join the roster, steel drums hammered out soon after, and by the early eighties an Aromatic Division busied itself compounding flavours and fine fragrances. In those same years we laid fourteen shore tanks at Pinamucan, Batangas, with their own pier ready to berth 25,000-DWT ships—first built to hold 11.5 million L, now upgraded to more than 22 million L of liquid cargo.
With that deep-well storage and its dedicated jetty, Himmel eased into bulk solvents. Methanol, the workhorse of modern chemistry, became our flagship. Today the company stands among the country’s premiere methanol suppliers, moving cargo from Pinamucan tanks to factories north and south while still scouting fresh, innovative molecules for Philippine industry.
We continue to serve nearly every craft—paper, glue, food, pharmaceuticals, paint and ink, plastics, rubber, PVC, cement, textile, tobacco, beer and more—keeping shop floors turning and boilers firing.
Through the decades Himmel’s early earnings and know-how helped seed what is now the LUCIO TAN GROUP: Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery, Tanduay Distillers, Philippine Airlines, Eton Properties, Philippine National Bank and other pillars of commerce. In truth, Himmel was the first spark that lit the larger torch.
A new chapter is afoot. Third-generation scion LUCIO TAN III, groomed in engineering halls abroad, has taken the presidency of LT Group and sister firms, steering the family empire while his grandfather remains chairman. His rise marks a careful hand-over, yet the old values endure: thrift, tinkering, and faith in Philippine industry—principles first tempered in the little glycerine shed at Santolan.
Philippines
