Established in 1893, Haltermann was a small Hamburg-based company that started life as a tar distillery. It moved into the local petrol market in the 1920s and remained active until 1970. They supplied 80 service stations in 1957 but only 45 by 1970, their last year as an independent brand. The company continues to trade in speciality chemicals from its Hamburg base and in December 1998 was bought by the UK chemical company Ascot plc.