Focused innovations FiberVisions

FOCUSED INNOVATION

FiberVisions has the broadest global reach of any polyolefin staple fibre producer but the global company continues to look for strong growth through innovation, finding new applications and continuing to push into new markets. Abigail Saltmarsh reports.

According to Karena Cancilleri, global hygiene director of US-based FiberVisions , the company has a strong advantage over its competitors that will stand it in good stead as it moves forward into the future. She said FiberVisions was already a world leader in polyolefin and bicomponent fibres, and had built a solid platform from which to grow further.

“Once we have a good idea or a great product, we can internationalise it. That brings us competitive advantage,” she said.

“When you look back over the years, you can see that we have grown consistently each year – even during the recession. This is due to the fact that we have a wide range of products and our target is to have more than 35 per cent of revenues coming from new products.”

She added: “That is a pretty aggressive target to have but it means we are continually looking for new products and applications. We would like to be able to achieve a growth of between five and ten percent per year.”

A major producer

FiberVisions is the world’s largest producer of polyolefin and bicomponent staple fibres. It develops, manufactures and markets polyolefin fibres for nonwovens in hygiene, textile and industrial applications. Its fibres are used in nonwovens made by carding, wet lay and air laid web formation processes and consolidated by thermal bonding, air through bonding, needle punching and spun lacing.

The low density of the fibres allows users to either make a nonwoven fabric in the same weight range as competing fibres but with improved coverage, or to make a fabric in a lighter weight range, but with the same coverage and lower material costs.

PP fibres give nonwovens with high tensile strength, possess excellent resistance to chemicals, and can be made with a broad range of elongation properties.

The bicomponent fibres allow customers to manufacture nonwoven fabrics without using any chemical binders. Bicomponent fibres can also be heat sealable, laminatable to polyolefin-based materials without any binders, and heat mouldable.

Different markets

“Our products go to a variety of different markets including the hygiene, textile, automotive and construction industries,” said Mrs Cancilleri. “We are present in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, and are growing in all those places.” She added: “FiberVisions was born as a hygiene company and hygiene still represents an important part of our business.”

A history

The operation began, in fact, as a joint venture between the fibres division of Hercules Incorporated and the Danaklon group of Jacob Holm and Sons A/S of Denmark in 1997. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Hercules in 1998 when Jacob Holm and Sons sold its interest.

It entered into the bicomponent fibres business in 2000 with the formation of ES FiberVisions, a joint venture with Chisso Corporation of Japan (now called JNC Corporation since 1 April, 2011). In 2006, Hercules sold a controlling interest in the company to Snow Phipps Group, LLC (SPG), a private equity firm based in New York City. SPG subsequently acquired the entire company and the transaction has provided FiberVisions with the financial backing to fund additional growth.

Today the company has manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China

and, through its joint venture partners, in Japan and South America. It also has marketing and sales support in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, North America and South America.

Ongoing development

FiberVisions has a long history of innovation, said Mrs Cancilleri. “We want to support industry through growth and expansion,” she said. “We have technical staff in Europe, the USA and Asia, and we like to work with the most innovation companies and industry leaders.”

The aim, she stressed, with new product development is to look for improvements in efficiency and for product enhancement. “We have responded to our customers’ needs by developing finer denier fibres that allow the reduction of weight and can enhance products for those customers that want to develop products with a higher softness grade,” she said.

She added: “Other issues for innovation include sustainability. We have recently developed biodegradable bicomponent fibres, which we launched at the Index 2011 World Fair in April.” Positive future

Mrs Cancilleri said these new developments would take the company forward towards growth in new markets. Meanwhile, it would also look for expansion in its existing markets. “Our target of five to ten per cent growth is pretty aggressive but if possible we would like to grow above GDP. Finding new applications will be the driver for this,” she said. And she added: “We are looking very positively towards the future. We see possibilities for organic growth but we will also be looking into the possibility of mergers and acquisitions as well.” n