01.01.04
Location: Bergamo, Italy
Sales: $88 MILLION
Description: Key Personnel
Giovanni Moscheni, chief executive officer; Aldo Ghira, managing director; Mauro Moscheni, marketing and sales director; Gampiero Crotti, plant manager Italy; Mimoun Saim, general manager, Tenotex Nonwovens S.A.
Plants
Terno d’Isola, Italy; Bonate, Italy; Benejama, Spain.
ISO Status
ISO 9001:2000 September 2000
Processes
Carded thermal bonded, resin bonded, spunbonded, SMS, air through bonded, spunlaced, ultrasonic bonding lamination.
Major Markets
Hygiene, wipes
A movement away from commodity products is the main goal of Tenotex. After entering the spunlaced market last year, the Bergamo, Italy-based company has continued to downsize its thermal bonded output, particularly the portion dedicated to hygiene coverstock. This strategy most recently led to the closure of a fourth thermal bond line in April and Tenotex, which once relied on this technology as its core business, now operates only one thermal bonded line dedicated to coverstock materials.
The movement away from thermal bond comes after a market transition from thermal bonded to spunbonded nonwovens for coverstocks, which has led to idle capacity of carded lines as well as polypropylene fiber spinning lines around the world. Much of Tenotex’s lost capacity in this segment will be compensated for by its recent entry into the spunlaced market, where it is mainly targeting wipes, but Tenotex has also begun relying on proprietary nonwovens technology to produce value-added products. For instance, the aforementioned thermal bond line, which was closed this spring, is currently being revamped to make a completely new product. While officials would not describe the process planned for this machine, they said that it is expected to be up and running by November.
“It is always a challenge to achieve a balance between standard equipment for producing commodity products and developing proprietary material based on our own engineering know-how,” explained Aldo Ghira, managing director. To achieve this, Tenotex has increased efforts in part of its research and development team dedicated to process development.
One area reaping the benefits of this new focus is spunlaced. Tenotex’s Tenolace spunlaced product blends staple fiber carded webs with airlaid wood pulp. The result is a product with more value than traditional full staple fiber-based spunlaced materials. The line, located in Benejama, Spain, is currently about 80% sold out and Mr. Ghira expects it will eventually represent 25-30% of the company’s overall business.
And, despite the rapid increase in spunlaced capacity, which has already occurred in Europe and is projected for North America, Tenotex remains optimistic that there are growing opportunities for spunlaced nonwovens that satisfy the need for diversification. While many of its European competitors have announced plans to build in the U.S., Tenotex, which currently has facilities in Spain and Italy, has no such intentions, for now. Only a major customer demand, at this point, would influence Tenotex to move beyond Europe.
In fact, it is the onset of turnkey technology that has allowed the rapid rise in capacity, which Tenotex blames for current conditions in the nonwovens industry. This cost-competitive environment in large-volume markets has welcomed too many participants focused on the same commodity-oriented markets. These investments have generated excess capacity and depressed margins, according to executives.
“While there is the need, sometimes, to be present in the commodities business for critical mass reasons, we are making efforts toward improving our ability to capitalize on the proprietary know-how of several processes—spunmelt, carded thermal and air-through bonded, resin bonded, hybrid spunlaced and sonic bonded lamination,” Mr. Ghira said.
Tenotex will continue to focus on some commodity-type markets while shifting part of its focus toward applications where the company’s process and organization offer flexibility, performance and lower costs and toward new customers needs where a combination of processes could lead to innovative materials through new investments.
One large volume market still of interest to Tenotex is air through bonded. The company operates three lines, mainly targeting acquisition and distribution layers for hygiene products and some home care products. This segment, representing 15% of total sales, has increased in profitability in recent months, thanks to a change in product mix.
Increasing profitability through innovation will be the wave of the future for Tenotex. “Our intention is always to grow. In volume, we probably won’t grow significantly but our sales will go up as our products continue to have more added values,” Mr. Ghira said.
“Hopefully, that will also boost profits. On average profits in nonwovens are generally pretty low and we would like to work to reverse this.”
Sales: $88 MILLION
Description: Key Personnel
Giovanni Moscheni, chief executive officer; Aldo Ghira, managing director; Mauro Moscheni, marketing and sales director; Gampiero Crotti, plant manager Italy; Mimoun Saim, general manager, Tenotex Nonwovens S.A.
Plants
Terno d’Isola, Italy; Bonate, Italy; Benejama, Spain.
ISO Status
ISO 9001:2000 September 2000
Processes
Carded thermal bonded, resin bonded, spunbonded, SMS, air through bonded, spunlaced, ultrasonic bonding lamination.
Major Markets
Hygiene, wipes
A movement away from commodity products is the main goal of Tenotex. After entering the spunlaced market last year, the Bergamo, Italy-based company has continued to downsize its thermal bonded output, particularly the portion dedicated to hygiene coverstock. This strategy most recently led to the closure of a fourth thermal bond line in April and Tenotex, which once relied on this technology as its core business, now operates only one thermal bonded line dedicated to coverstock materials.
The movement away from thermal bond comes after a market transition from thermal bonded to spunbonded nonwovens for coverstocks, which has led to idle capacity of carded lines as well as polypropylene fiber spinning lines around the world. Much of Tenotex’s lost capacity in this segment will be compensated for by its recent entry into the spunlaced market, where it is mainly targeting wipes, but Tenotex has also begun relying on proprietary nonwovens technology to produce value-added products. For instance, the aforementioned thermal bond line, which was closed this spring, is currently being revamped to make a completely new product. While officials would not describe the process planned for this machine, they said that it is expected to be up and running by November.
“It is always a challenge to achieve a balance between standard equipment for producing commodity products and developing proprietary material based on our own engineering know-how,” explained Aldo Ghira, managing director. To achieve this, Tenotex has increased efforts in part of its research and development team dedicated to process development.
One area reaping the benefits of this new focus is spunlaced. Tenotex’s Tenolace spunlaced product blends staple fiber carded webs with airlaid wood pulp. The result is a product with more value than traditional full staple fiber-based spunlaced materials. The line, located in Benejama, Spain, is currently about 80% sold out and Mr. Ghira expects it will eventually represent 25-30% of the company’s overall business.
And, despite the rapid increase in spunlaced capacity, which has already occurred in Europe and is projected for North America, Tenotex remains optimistic that there are growing opportunities for spunlaced nonwovens that satisfy the need for diversification. While many of its European competitors have announced plans to build in the U.S., Tenotex, which currently has facilities in Spain and Italy, has no such intentions, for now. Only a major customer demand, at this point, would influence Tenotex to move beyond Europe.
In fact, it is the onset of turnkey technology that has allowed the rapid rise in capacity, which Tenotex blames for current conditions in the nonwovens industry. This cost-competitive environment in large-volume markets has welcomed too many participants focused on the same commodity-oriented markets. These investments have generated excess capacity and depressed margins, according to executives.
“While there is the need, sometimes, to be present in the commodities business for critical mass reasons, we are making efforts toward improving our ability to capitalize on the proprietary know-how of several processes—spunmelt, carded thermal and air-through bonded, resin bonded, hybrid spunlaced and sonic bonded lamination,” Mr. Ghira said.
Tenotex will continue to focus on some commodity-type markets while shifting part of its focus toward applications where the company’s process and organization offer flexibility, performance and lower costs and toward new customers needs where a combination of processes could lead to innovative materials through new investments.
One large volume market still of interest to Tenotex is air through bonded. The company operates three lines, mainly targeting acquisition and distribution layers for hygiene products and some home care products. This segment, representing 15% of total sales, has increased in profitability in recent months, thanks to a change in product mix.
Increasing profitability through innovation will be the wave of the future for Tenotex. “Our intention is always to grow. In volume, we probably won’t grow significantly but our sales will go up as our products continue to have more added values,” Mr. Ghira said.
“Hopefully, that will also boost profits. On average profits in nonwovens are generally pretty low and we would like to work to reverse this.”