GREENVILLE, S.C.—From humble beginnings to a worldwide power, Bostik S.A. has come a long way in 125 years, and the firm hopes to be around for 125 more.
Bob Marquette, president and CEO of Bostik Inc.—the firm's North American business unit—and senior vice president of Bostik, detailed the firm's history and future plans for growth in his keynote address at the 2014 Adhesive and Sealant Council Fall Convention and Expo in Greenville.
“Bostik is a microcosm of a lot of other companies in this room and really the adhesives industry in general,” Marquette said. “Many of us started off in one thing, and as the industry changes and evolves, our companies have changed.”
The firm is positioning itself for sustained success through a number of activities. In the Americas, Bostik recently consolidated all of its research and development activities in-to its North American head-quar-ters in Milwaukee.
The process began in 2011, which involved relocating as many employees as possible from Philadelphia and Boston, and culminated with an expanded center in 2013. During an interview following his presentation, Marquette said the firm invested more than $10 million in the renovation process—which included renovating open space for expanded research and development in addition to purchasing new equipment.
“Our customers can come to this location, run trials with our adhesives and their substrates, and make prototypes of the materials they're going to be making in their production lots,” Marquette said.
Bostik has several expansions planned—all targeted at its hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives business. It will move into a new site in Monterrey, Mexico, that will double its capacity to 20,000 metric tons in the first phase, projected for first quarter 2016. Marquette said the firm has the ability to scale up from there.
Worldwide, Marquette said the firm opened a new hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives plant in China in 2013 and is getting ready to commercialize another in India for the first quarter of 2015.
In North America, Marquette said over the next two to four years, the firm sees the rebounding of the housing market as providing growth opportunity for the firm, especially in elastic bonding technology for flooring applications.
“Hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives is one of our technology pillars,” Marquette said. “It's a technology where we have a lot of depth and breadth of expertise. I think it's one we continue to see as being a leading growth technology for us into a number of industries.”