Sioen Industries NV, a leading producer of technical textiles, fine chemicals and high-tech protective clothing, has announced the takeover of Manifattura Fontana, an Italian producer of geotextile nonwovens, serving the European civil engineering market.

Manifattura Fontana, founded in 1704 and located in Vicenza, Italy, is a manufacturer of nonwoven needle felt. The company puts an emphasis on the careful selection of raw materials and the use of highly advanced technology in its four modern production lines with a total capacity of 10,000 tons/year.

With the acquisition, Sioen Industries Group aims to reinforce its nonwoven business with an important and promising new application: geotextiles, serving the civil engineering market. Under the terms of the acquisition, Mr Francesco Fontana will remain as Managing Director. The company will be integrated in the Sioen nonwovens business.

Strategic course

Sioen Industries Group is the market leader in coated technical textiles and technical apparel, protecting people and their belongings. The acquisition is consistent with the Group’s strategy, aimed at technology driven, sustainable and profitable growth.

According to the manufacturer, it opens to the Group a new and promising market of geosynthetics, driven by the growing global demand for improved infrastructure. It also provides the Group with improved access to new geographical markets and brings the additional knowhow in its needle felt technology.

The acquisition also contributes to Sioen Industries Group, being an integrated solutions provider for technical textiles and reinforces its system of vertical integration, where each activity reinforces the other. Finally, it is said to held enable the Group to realize growth in turnover and margin.

Manifattura Fontana

Manifattura Fontana S.p.A has been founded in 1704 as a silk weaver, and is since 1932 in the hands of the Fontana family. In the early 1960’s, the company focused on synthetic fibres, and was the first geotextile producer in Italy.

Today it is a market leader in the Italian geotextile market with a strong position in the European market. It has a good quality reputation, with a wide product portfolio in both light and heavy weight needle felts, on wide widths (6,7 m). It has spare capacity, permitting further growth. It is located in Valstagna, Vicenza, near to the Austrian border, allowing easy access to the most important European markets.

The company is ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified and holds all important certificates to serve the geosynthetic market, such as ASQUAL (FR), NORGEOSPEC (Scan), IVG (D), BBA (UK), and more.

Sioen Industries

Sioen Industries has an extensive portfolio of products and activities, which include spinning, weaving and coating, manufacturing of garments, production of fine chemicals and processing of technical textiles.

Sioen believes that vertical and horizontal integration, diversification and permanent growth provide the company with a major technical advantage and better R&D. The company’s main focuses are on customised products, high end, specialised products, recyclable/recycled products, integrated features, and intelligent textiles.

www.sioen.com