Home / Company Info

Committed to providing our customers with high quality products, superior service and support.

BEI Hawaii traces its beginning to 1890, when a small Honolulu company began importing albatross guano from the Pacific’s remote Laysan Island. As sugar and pineapple grew into major agricultural industries in Hawaii, the company expanded its line of products to include commercial fertilizers and crop protection products.

In 1927, the company, then known as Pacific Guano and Fertilizer Company, opened a branch on the island of Hawaii, following later with additional facilities on Maui and Kauai. The company began blending its own fertilizers on all major islands. Its Laboratory Services Division in Papaikou on the island of Hawaii became an important resource for soil and plant tissue analysis, paving the way for custom blended fertilizers. By the 1930’s, Hawaii became the world’s most efficient grower of sugarcane and pineapple. Our fertilizer and specialty chemical brand, Gaviota, became synonymous with these crops.

Building on that expertise, the company, under several name changes, took on the challenges of Hawaii’s growing diversified agricultural business. Known as Brewer Chemical, and later as Brewer Environmental Industries, the company became the primary manufacturer of fertilizers for Hawaii’s major plantation crops – sugar, pineapple and macadamia nuts. Today, seed corn is the dominant agricultural crop and we continue to be a principal supplier for their specific crop needs.

The world also knows Hawaii as a world class travel destination. BEI Hawaii successfully became the primary supplier of fertilizers, chemicals and sand to Hawaii’s golf course and landscape markets. BEI Hawaii pioneered the use of high grade silica sands for golf courses and continues to provide USGA sand and custom blended rootzone mixes for new golf course construction, renovations and ongoing maintenance requirements.

BEI Hawaii’s involvement in industrial chemicals also goes back to Hawaii’s early agricultural days when sugar and pineapple plantations set up factories to process their products. In the 1960s, however, BEI Hawaii jump-started its participation in areas outside of agriculture by actively selling generic chemicals to power plants and local refineries. Today, BEI Hawaii is the largest distributor of industrial chemicals, both bulk and non-bulk, to industries in the State. We are also well established as a product distributor in numerous niche markets such as swimming pools and pest control.

Since 2002, BEI Hawaii has been owned by Marathon Group.

As a distributor of fertilizer, industrial, and agricultural chemicals in the State of Hawaii, BEI Hawaii has had many “historical firsts":

  • Importer of commercial fertilizers
  • Importer of bulk fertilizers
  • Manufacturer of dry fertilizer blends (commercial and retail)
  • Large-scale manufacturer of liquid fertilizers
  • Delivery of liquid fertilizers via bulk tankers
  • Importer of liquid surfactants for agricultural use
  • Introduction of USGA silica sands for golf course use
  • Importer of true-bulk industrial chemicals
  • Delivery of industrial chemicals via bulk tankers
  • Large-scale manufacturer of industrial bleach
  • Promotion of product stewardship programs for industrial products
  • In-house regulatory compliance officer for environmental issues