COMBINING STRENGTHS IN
NONWOVENS
When the 200 year-old Danish nonwovens company Jacob Holm acquired DuPont’s Sontara® business last year it created a new industry leader in spunlaced fabrics and transformed its market reach. CEO Martin Mikkelsen spoke to Peter Mercer about the opportunities for the new group.
“2014
was a transformative year for Jacob Holm,” says CEO of the Group Martin Mikkelsen. “We followed through with the ambitious growth strategy that we had initiated in 2012 through pursuing both organic and inorganic tracks. We completed the construction of a new production line at our US plant in North Carolina and brought into the group the global Sontara® nonwovens business that we acquired from DuPont. “The combination of Jacob Holm and Sontara® creates a new industry leader in innovation in spunlaced nonwoven fabrics with a broader range of advanced technologies and complementary
strengths in global markets. Jacob Holm has a long-established position in consumer products for personal care and hygiene while Sontara® is strong in the industrial and medical market segments. “The acquisition of Sontara® also brings with it some 240 employees at the former DuPont sites in Old Hickory, Tennessee, and at Asturias in Spain, roughly doubling the Jacob Holm Group workforce and adding to the 65 new employees that we have taken on following the start-up of the new line at our plant in Asheville, North Carolina. We are keenly looking forward to working with our new colleagues and partners in taking the Jacob Holm Group to a new level of global pre-eminence.”
From ropes to fabrics Founded in Copenhagen in 1794, Jacob Holm is today one of the world’s leading nonwoven roll and finished goods manufacturers. Early in its history the business diversified into rope manufacturing to serve Denmark’s important shipping industry, and in time the rope factory was extended with the introduction of two spinning works which produced a wide range of products, including threads, linen and sisal strands – even clothes lines. These were followed by soft fibre products, made from jute, flax and hemp, for ropes and strings and for the textile industry. It was in the 1950s that the company began the production of synthetic fibres and by the first decade of the 21st century its business was focused solely on the development of new, value-added spunlaced applications. With the acquisition of the Sontara® business Jacob Holm now has four state-of-the-art production plants. Its original factory at Soultz, France, was established in 1996, and its US plant in North Carolina started operation in 2005. 70 Industry Europe
