12|06|2009

Ontex sets up Research and Development Office in Segovia

Belgian multinational Ontex has located its international Research and Development and Innovation department in its factory in the municipality of Valverde del Majano. The head of the group in Europe, Arnauld Demoulin, and the Managing Director of Ontex Ibérica, Miguel Ángel González made the announcement jointly. The Valverde factory has a workforce of 292.

The Valverde del Majano factory will as a result become the multinational’s research center. Miguel Ángel González went on to explain that the research areas to be focused on in the coming years will concern work with raw materials and innovation in the field of children’s products. The new R&D center will require an initial investment of 4 million euros.

Belgian multinational Ontex has transformed the factory located in Valverde del Majano, a municipality of Segovia, into the largest and most important center for the production of disposable hygiene-sanitary products in Europe.

The Belgian group, which manufactures nappies for babies and women’s hygiene and incontinence products, set up in the province of Segovia in 1996, the year in which it bought 90% of the company Fibras Sanitarias S.A. Its expansion plans led to the move to Valverde del Majano two years ago.

Since it made the purchase, Ontex has increased its workforce to over 300. It has capacity for 18 production lines and a turnover forecast of 110 million euros in 2008. The company is a market leader in the sanitary-hygiene sector in Europe with a 70% market share. It works with the main distribution chains in Spain such as Mercadona, Carrefour, Día, Alcampo and Caprabo. Its main raw material is cellulose imported principally from Scandinavia, Canada and the United States.