Consider the customer who wants a little of something complicated. A food ingredient. A specialty resin. A material for a 3D printer. Before buying, that customer may need technical advice, documentation, a price and a credible delivery date. The order can be modest; the work surrounding it is not. That mismatch is the commercial problem Xenon arc has chosen to organize itself around.
- XaDirect runs producer-branded sales teams, commerce and fulfillment for hard-to-serve customers.
- XA Solutions adds specialty distribution and formulation support for CASE markets.
- The proposition: keep smaller buyers close while shifting the work of serving them.
Its clients are producers of specialty chemicals, ingredients and materials. Its particular concern is their long tail: the smaller, scattered buyers who are expensive to serve individually. Those buyers can disappear into the space between a manufacturer’s direct sales team and its distribution network. Xenon arc puts a staffed, digitally equipped business into that space.
The interesting part is whose name appears on the door. Through XaDirect, Xenon arc works under the producer’s brand, using dedicated teams it calls Exterprises. The producer keeps the customer relationship; Xenon arc supplies the commercial and operational machinery. For a business accustomed to choosing between internal control and external convenience, that arrangement changes the calculation.
02A sales team with somebody else’s name
An Exterprise combines technical and commercial people: inside sales, field sales, service and support. Add a branded buying experience, campaigns to find customers, inventory and fulfillment. The assignment extends through the order-to-cash cycle, the unglamorous stretch in which a promising inquiry must become an actual shipment and a paid invoice.
This is where Xenon arc sits in the market. A software vendor can provide a storefront; a distributor can supply products; a producer can hire more people. XaDirect bundles those functions around one producer’s identity. Its distinction is the combination of dedicated staffing, brand continuity and visibility into customers who might otherwise become difficult to see.
The company says a new Exterprise takes 90 days to establish. That includes recruiting and training, notifying customers, procuring inventory and setting up the technology. Treat that as a stated implementation timetable. The useful detail is the checklist: launching a channel means preparing people, stock and customer communication alongside the screen.
Xenon arc’s stated timetable
- 01Hire + train
- 02Notify buyers
- 03Procure stock
- 04Connect systems
03The shopping cart has to know the chemistry
Braskem supplies a concrete example. In 2021, the two companies announced an Amazon storefront for Braskem’s polypropylene 3D-printing filaments. The audience included smaller makerspaces, hobbyists and educational institutions. In 2022 came Braskem3D, pairing thermoplastics expertise with an online platform for filaments, powders and pellets.
KerrySelect shows what those doors need behind them. Development partner Brain & Code describes a North American commerce project with Xenon arc offering customer-specific catalogs, prices and payment terms, technical documents, inventory availability and order management. It reports delivery on budget and on time in six months.
That six-month project and the 90-day Exterprise timetable describe different scopes. Neither tells a buyer to expect instant transformation. The lesson is more practical: make it easier to find a material, establish whether it fits, see the commercial terms and return for the next order. A shopping cart is useful only when the surrounding questions have answers.
“We are continuously looking for new ways to make our materials more accessible to consumers and small enterprise clients.”Jason Vagnozzi, Braskem
2021 Amazon storefront announcement
04Make the small customer visible
Xenon arc’s technology addresses both ends of the relationship. Its directibility 2.0 announcement in 2023 described ordering, documentation and live assistance for buyers. The company had introduced the original commerce solution in 2020. The producer-facing conntact 2.0, launched in 2022, focuses on customer, product and transaction information.
The conntact release describes dashboards covering pricing, demand planning and performance down to individual stock-keeping units. More revealingly, Xenon arc said it convened a client advisory committee of strategic and everyday users to shape the update. That is a specific, repeatable development habit: ask the people making decisions what they need to see, then build the reporting around those decisions.
05Then it bought another route to market
Founded in 2010, with Chad Steigers among its co-founders, Xenon arc began with producer-branded business units. An affiliate of Peak Rock Capital acquired the company with management in December 2021, announcing plans to expand capabilities, technology and geographic coverage. Mick Slattery, previously CEO of CompuCom, was appointed chief executive in November 2023.
The next moves widened the model. Xenon arc acquired Brandt Technologies in 2024 and JNS SmithChem in March 2025. Both brought specialty distribution expertise; JNS added relationships across the eastern and southeastern United States. Their capabilities came together under XA Solutions, focused on coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers, the cluster known as CASE.
XA Solutions offers complementary product lines, formulation support and field expertise, with coverage across all 50 states. XaDirect remains the producer-branded option. The expansion suggests a practical judgment: different customer segments can require different routes. The company now sells producers a choice of operating arrangements, supported by shared commercial technology and services.
The producer’s brand
A dedicated team and buying experience for the producer’s customers.
Specialty distribution
Complementary CASE products, formulation support and field expertise.
06The economics live behind the checkout
Xenon arc’s FAQ describes service fees combined with traditional distribution pricing. It also says the company takes title to inventory and manages warehouses and carriers selected for customer needs. Those details matter. This is an operating commitment involving goods and fulfillment, with economics that reach beyond a software subscription.
A producer evaluating the arrangement should compare the cost of serving a segment with its potential contribution, including technical support, inventory and fulfillment. That is an analytical test, rather than a published Xenon arc return calculation. A dedicated channel makes the clearest sense when enough neglected demand exists to support the work. A few simple orders may call for a simpler solution.
07Start with the customers waiting for an answer
One of the company’s most useful pieces of advice is also its least technological. In an article about repairing customer relations after supply-chain disruption, strategy chief Mica Zuniga argues for clear communication with buyers, including those a supplier cannot currently serve. Tell them what products are changing. Give honest lead times. Ask where they are buying now.
Any producer can copy that discipline before commissioning a new platform. Identify the customers the organization struggles to serve, learn what blocks their next purchase, and assign responsibility for resolving it. Xenon arc has built a business around doing that work at scale.