MONTERREY, Mexico—Bostik S.A. has opened its new manufacturing facility in Monterrey, significantly increasing production for hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives in the region.
Robert Marquette, Bostik senior vice president of the Americas, said the facility was constructed to replace an older building located five miles away from the new campus—which is about three times the size at approximately 118,000 square feet and initially will have the capacity for more than 20,000 metric tons of hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives.
Employment was unaffected by the move. The old building has been shut down, and the new site is up and running. Marquette said the facility employs 100 and represents an investment of more than $10 million. Bostik projects to add 20-30 jobs by mid-2016 as it increases production in Phase 2 of the expansion.
“We've been in Mexico now for more than 25 years,” Marquette said. “We've done a very good job of building our market presence. Our business has grown substantially over the years, and we're just in a good position where we see a lot of promise in Mexico and throughout that whole northern cone of South America.”
Bostik's hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives are based on styrene-block-copolymer thermoplastic rubbers with a tackifying resin. The added production primarily will serve the disposable hygiene sector—mainly manufacturers of baby diapers, feminine hygiene and adult incontinence—according to a news release from Bostik's parent company, Arkema S.A.
Bostik said it employed a cross-regional approach where manufacturing and engineering expertise from other hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives sites was heavily used in the planning phases.
Marquette said the new facility improves the firm's technology offering in the region and sets the stage for continued growth in the market, adding that the facility will deliver significant benefits to supply chain efficiency and costs.
The facility will focus mostly on the hygiene market, but Marquette said there will be some adhesives produced for hot melt labeling used in the packaging industry. He said down the road the firm anticipates adding additional capacity at the site to serve any number of its industrial customers. Hygiene accounts for about 30 percent of Bostik's overall Americas business.
“We're looking at this as a regional site, not just strictly for Mexico,” Marquette said. “We would anticipate that the market will continue to grow in the range of 6 to 10 percent. We're really bullish on the outlook for countries in the northern cone, like Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. As the economies strengthen, we see good expansion of those markets. We're also seeing good growth for the rest of the Central American countries as well.”
Bostik manufactures a range of adhesives and related products for the industrial manufacturing and construction markets. The firm recently opened plants in China, Malaysia, Brazil, India and the U.S.
Earlier this year, Bostik opened a new campus geared toward hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives for the hygiene industry in Bangalore, India. The Bangalore expansion is 100 percent dedicated to this type of technology.
The new plant in India follows other plant openings in China, Malaysia and Brazil. Its facility in Changshu, China, opened in 2013 and is Bostik's largest site in the world, focusing on hot melt pressure sensitive adhesives for the hygiene and tape and label markets.
The firm's plant in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, opened in 2014 and focuses on tile adhesive and cement-related powder products. Its facility in Brazil stems from its Usina Fortaleza acquisition in 2012, which has expanded to provide polymer modified binders for the construction market.
Bostik is a global adhesive specialist with 4,900 employees and a presence in more than 50 countries. It reported 2014 sales of about $1.64 billion. The firm is a unit of Arkema, a global chemicals producer that employs about 19,000 in roughly 50 countries with 2014 sales of about $8.22 billion.