01.01.10
(formerly Colbond)
Location: Arnhem, The Netherlands
Sales: $163 million
Description: Key Personnel
Jan van Boldrik, CEO; Bart Austin, president Colbond Inc.; Harry Verbakel, director sales and marketing floor coverings; Blair Rawes, director sales and marketing construction; ; Randy Cook, director sales and marketing, NAFTA
Plants
Emmen and Arnhem, The Netherlands; Obernburg, Germany; Asheville, NC
Processes
Extruded, spunbond, thermal bonded and specialties
Brand Names
Colback, Enkamat, Enkadrain, Colbonddrain, Enkagrid, Enka-Spacer, Enka-Channel, EnkaRetain & Drain
Major Markets
Flooring, automotive, construction, civil engineering, building and various industrial applications
Reporting a 15-20% drop in sales, building and construction specialist Colbond has been able to somewhat steel itself against negative economic conditions by maintaining a significant or leading position, in all of its core markets which include, the flooring, automotives, roofing, building products, industrial products and civil engineering segments and technical textiles.
“Sales declines, coupled with continued increases in all of our key raw materials throughout the past year or more have continued to pressure our margins and have led us to redouble our efforts in manufacturing and cost control in all of our endeavors,” said sales and marketing director, NAFTA, Randy Cook. “Even though we have had good success in these efforts, we have finally had to pass on some of these cost increases in the form of general price increases.”
The good news is that residential building and automotive markets seem to have bottomed out and begun a rally; the bad news is that the impact on the commercial building segment is not over. “Overall our production and sales levels have been increasing but we have enough headroom to take advantage of any new opportunities,” Mr. Cook said.
With manufacturing sites in Emmen and Arhem, The Netherlands, Obernburg, Germany and Asheville, NC, Colbond is active with sales in most regions of the globe. Recent efforts have centered on growing its Asian business through parent company’s Low and Bonar’s joint venture in China, from which the company is warehousing product and growing direct sales in the region. Key markets for the company globally continue to be flooring, automotives, construction, civil engineering and building.
Central to Colbond’s product line is its Colback nonwoven reinforcements for automotives and flooring applications. According to Mr. Cook, all of the areas that use Colback nonwovens have been picking up recently and products continue to perform well in these markets. Colbond has continued to develop and refine its offerings most recently including the launch and transition at several major customers to its unique reversible Face2Face primary backing, which offers numerous advantages to carpet tile manufacturers because one side is grey and the other is black, allowing rapid color change by simply flipping the roll instead of having to wait on a roll of the different color.
Within the automotives segment, Colbond has faced several challenges, brought on mainly by lighter vehicle production and a reduction in consumer confidence. However, the introduction of Colback Pro has helped revitalize this business. Described as a revolutionary carpet backing for molded tufted car carpeting, Colback Pro is a thermal bonded spunlaid nonwoven made from bicomponent filaments with a polyester core and a polypropylene skin. This product has enjoyed tremendous success in the most demanding automotive platforms where customers can take advantages of the special characteristics of this low temperature molding product which meets demanding after-shrinkage requirements. Colbond plans to expand the scope of this technology into the NAFTA region by early 2011 through investments at its Asheville, NC facility.
As the construction market, led by the residential side, continues to regain steam, Colbond is benefiting from an innovative project—implemented before the downturn—to add capacity to its Enkamat product line through the development and installation of a two-meter wide production line. This new line came onstream in 2010 and the company has already begun transitioning key accounts and developing new wider Enkamat-based products to take advantage of this new capability and increased capacity. Colbond has also benefitted from a broad product portfolio to optimize its existing manufacturing processes, which is constantly being expanded.
Meanwhile, Colbond’s civil engineering business continues to be a vital and significant segment for the company, particularly as government stimulus programs in the U.S., increase activity in this market.
As it focuses on rebounding the markets that have been challenged during the past 18 months, Colbond is also working hard to expand its range. “We are constantly scouring the market, trade shows, Academia and jointly working with our customers, partners, representatives and distributors to find adjacent markets and technologies to take advantage of our unique and innovative capabilities and we are having good successes at finding and mining these proprietary opportunities—however, we are quite protective of these efforts and would therefore prefer to keep them under wraps for now,” Mr. Cook said.
Another focus for Colbond is ecofriendliness. In 2009, the company expanded its offerings in this key segment when it extended its Colback range of environmentally sustainable carpet backings. All standard product types now are available as recycled content variants, contributing to the flooring industry’s drive for sustainable manufacturing.
Ecofriendly Colback carpet backings deliver exactly the same cost-effective high performance as Colback nonwovens manufactured from virgin raw material.
In January 2007, after years of intense in-house research and development work, Colbond launched the first Colback nonwoven using 100% post-consumer recycled polyester. Building on the success of this product the company has recently substantially increased its capacity for post-consumer recycled polyester.
“For several years now, we have been offering many, if not most, of our products, with varying and increasing percentages of post industrial and more recently post consumer recycled materials incorporating polypropylene, Nylon6 and polyester,” Mr. Cook explained. “We also have developed activities using bio-based polymers such as Triexta and Saronna. We also have numerous initiatives throughout the organization addressing sustainability and our corporate footprint.”
Colbond is also reportedly preparing to launch recycled content products in other core markets shortly.
Location: Arnhem, The Netherlands
Sales: $163 million
Description: Key Personnel
Jan van Boldrik, CEO; Bart Austin, president Colbond Inc.; Harry Verbakel, director sales and marketing floor coverings; Blair Rawes, director sales and marketing construction; ; Randy Cook, director sales and marketing, NAFTA
Plants
Emmen and Arnhem, The Netherlands; Obernburg, Germany; Asheville, NC
Processes
Extruded, spunbond, thermal bonded and specialties
Brand Names
Colback, Enkamat, Enkadrain, Colbonddrain, Enkagrid, Enka-Spacer, Enka-Channel, EnkaRetain & Drain
Major Markets
Flooring, automotive, construction, civil engineering, building and various industrial applications
Reporting a 15-20% drop in sales, building and construction specialist Colbond has been able to somewhat steel itself against negative economic conditions by maintaining a significant or leading position, in all of its core markets which include, the flooring, automotives, roofing, building products, industrial products and civil engineering segments and technical textiles.
“Sales declines, coupled with continued increases in all of our key raw materials throughout the past year or more have continued to pressure our margins and have led us to redouble our efforts in manufacturing and cost control in all of our endeavors,” said sales and marketing director, NAFTA, Randy Cook. “Even though we have had good success in these efforts, we have finally had to pass on some of these cost increases in the form of general price increases.”
The good news is that residential building and automotive markets seem to have bottomed out and begun a rally; the bad news is that the impact on the commercial building segment is not over. “Overall our production and sales levels have been increasing but we have enough headroom to take advantage of any new opportunities,” Mr. Cook said.
With manufacturing sites in Emmen and Arhem, The Netherlands, Obernburg, Germany and Asheville, NC, Colbond is active with sales in most regions of the globe. Recent efforts have centered on growing its Asian business through parent company’s Low and Bonar’s joint venture in China, from which the company is warehousing product and growing direct sales in the region. Key markets for the company globally continue to be flooring, automotives, construction, civil engineering and building.
Central to Colbond’s product line is its Colback nonwoven reinforcements for automotives and flooring applications. According to Mr. Cook, all of the areas that use Colback nonwovens have been picking up recently and products continue to perform well in these markets. Colbond has continued to develop and refine its offerings most recently including the launch and transition at several major customers to its unique reversible Face2Face primary backing, which offers numerous advantages to carpet tile manufacturers because one side is grey and the other is black, allowing rapid color change by simply flipping the roll instead of having to wait on a roll of the different color.
Within the automotives segment, Colbond has faced several challenges, brought on mainly by lighter vehicle production and a reduction in consumer confidence. However, the introduction of Colback Pro has helped revitalize this business. Described as a revolutionary carpet backing for molded tufted car carpeting, Colback Pro is a thermal bonded spunlaid nonwoven made from bicomponent filaments with a polyester core and a polypropylene skin. This product has enjoyed tremendous success in the most demanding automotive platforms where customers can take advantages of the special characteristics of this low temperature molding product which meets demanding after-shrinkage requirements. Colbond plans to expand the scope of this technology into the NAFTA region by early 2011 through investments at its Asheville, NC facility.
As the construction market, led by the residential side, continues to regain steam, Colbond is benefiting from an innovative project—implemented before the downturn—to add capacity to its Enkamat product line through the development and installation of a two-meter wide production line. This new line came onstream in 2010 and the company has already begun transitioning key accounts and developing new wider Enkamat-based products to take advantage of this new capability and increased capacity. Colbond has also benefitted from a broad product portfolio to optimize its existing manufacturing processes, which is constantly being expanded.
Meanwhile, Colbond’s civil engineering business continues to be a vital and significant segment for the company, particularly as government stimulus programs in the U.S., increase activity in this market.
As it focuses on rebounding the markets that have been challenged during the past 18 months, Colbond is also working hard to expand its range. “We are constantly scouring the market, trade shows, Academia and jointly working with our customers, partners, representatives and distributors to find adjacent markets and technologies to take advantage of our unique and innovative capabilities and we are having good successes at finding and mining these proprietary opportunities—however, we are quite protective of these efforts and would therefore prefer to keep them under wraps for now,” Mr. Cook said.
Another focus for Colbond is ecofriendliness. In 2009, the company expanded its offerings in this key segment when it extended its Colback range of environmentally sustainable carpet backings. All standard product types now are available as recycled content variants, contributing to the flooring industry’s drive for sustainable manufacturing.
Ecofriendly Colback carpet backings deliver exactly the same cost-effective high performance as Colback nonwovens manufactured from virgin raw material.
In January 2007, after years of intense in-house research and development work, Colbond launched the first Colback nonwoven using 100% post-consumer recycled polyester. Building on the success of this product the company has recently substantially increased its capacity for post-consumer recycled polyester.
“For several years now, we have been offering many, if not most, of our products, with varying and increasing percentages of post industrial and more recently post consumer recycled materials incorporating polypropylene, Nylon6 and polyester,” Mr. Cook explained. “We also have developed activities using bio-based polymers such as Triexta and Saronna. We also have numerous initiatives throughout the organization addressing sustainability and our corporate footprint.”
Colbond is also reportedly preparing to launch recycled content products in other core markets shortly.