Olin Corporation is a diversified chemicals and ammunition manufacturer headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, with historical roots in powder and explosives on one side and alkali and chlorine chemistry on the other. The business grew by combining Franklin Olin’s early powder and ammunition enterprises with Mathieson’s alkali and chlorine operations, gradually reshaping itself from a munitions-centered group into a broader chemical and materials platform. That hybrid origin still defines the company’s identity: it sits at the intersection of basic industrial chemistry and highly engineered ammunition products.
Today Olin is organized around three primary segments: Chlor Alkali Products & Vinyls, Epoxy, and Winchester. The chlor-alkali and vinyls operations produce chlorine, caustic soda, vinyl intermediates and related products used in PVC, water treatment, pulp and paper, and numerous process industries, while the epoxy segment supplies liquid and solid epoxies and precursors into coatings, composites, electrical and adhesive applications. Winchester serves as the ammunition arm, manufacturing sporting and military small-caliber ammunition under the Winchester brand and related product lines. This mix gives the company exposure to both heavy industry and consumer-facing markets through a tightly defined set of core chemistries and ballistics capabilities.
Operations are built on a vertically integrated manufacturing footprint that links large chlor-alkali plants, downstream vinyls and epoxy units, and ammunition facilities. Major chlorine and caustic soda capacity is located at sites such as Freeport, Texas and Charleston, Tennessee, complemented by a network of chlorinated organics and epoxy plants in North America and abroad. Integration is a defining feature: chlorine from chlor-alkali units feeds internal vinyls, epoxy and derivatives demand, while centralized logistics and terminal infrastructure move products into merchant markets and to Winchester, which operates its own specialized production and loading lines for cartridges and related components.
Within its industries, Olin is recognized as one of the largest global producers of chlor-alkali products and a leading U.S. manufacturer of small-caliber ammunition. The company’s reputation is closely tied to the scale and reliability of its chlor-alkali and epoxy supply, its ability to operate world-scale membrane chlor-alkali facilities, and the longstanding market presence of the Winchester brand in sporting and service ammunition. That combination of basic chemicals, specialty derivatives and branded ammunition gives Olin a distinctive position as both a foundational supplier to industrial value chains and a visible name in the consumer shooting and sporting ecosystem.