C.O.I.M. S.p.A, born in 1962 from the meeting between Mario Buzzella and Cesare Zocchi, is today an Italian multinational that develops, produces and markets chemical specialties for the manufacturing industry all over the world.
C.O.I.M. S.p.A, born in 1962 from the meeting between Mario Buzzella and Cesare Zocchi, is today an Italian multinational that develops, produces and markets chemical specialties for the manufacturing industry all over the world. COIM has an annual turnover of 800 million euros, boasts over 18 product lines and works worldwide through 18 companies, including 9 production sites. Over 1,100 specialized collaborators are daily committed to interpreting and satisfying customer expectations with three main product lines: polyesters and polyols, PU Case (coatings, adhesives, sealants) and polyurethane-based elastomers. COIM products are in many finished products that we use every day, as the engineer Giuseppe Librandi, President and CEO of COIM, explains.
Engineer Librandi, your love for chemistry began years ago. Can you tell us about your path?
“After graduating in Nuclear Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano and having worked for five years as a plant designer, the encounter with the world of chemistry took place in 2005, when I joined an important Italian group in the pharmaceutical and chemical sector. The promotion to manager came thanks to the construction project of a factory in China. A successful action that led the top management to offer me the role of CEO of a company, part of the group, in 2007 and then, in 2010, the reorganization project of another company, that, four years later, had returned to profit and to the financial and economic balance. I came to COIM as CEO at the end of 2019.”
Coim boasts a varied range of products, widely used…
“Our products can be found, for example, in food & pharma packaging, in the footwear sector, inside ski boots or in technical fabrics used to produce sportswear, in the thermal and acoustic insulation that makes the homes in which we live comfortable. Our products are used to produce the cables in which electricity flows, to reinforce the fiberglass artefacts, to create furnishing elements and to provide thermal insulation to homes.”
What are your target markets?
“The main outlet market for our adhesives is that of flexible packaging in the food & pharma sectors, in which we are the leader in Europe. The footwear sector represents another important share of COIM’s turnover, with a complete range of solutions for the production of soles and other footwear components. The bio-based solutions that we have recently launched, namely the Laripur RS and Urexter RS, are preferentially used in the production of soles for high-end footwear. Finally, the thermal insulation sector represents a constant growth, especially in this moment in which energy saving has assumed a fundamental importance in terms of sustainability and, therefore, of environmental protection.”
How is your foreign development plan evolving?
“COIM, as the sixth largest Italian chemical group, the first in Italy in the chemical sector in the segments of polyesters, polyols, polyurethanes and special resins and among the first in the world in the sector of polyesters for polyurethane systems, has always pursued a strategy of expansion aimed at intensifying its global presence. The COIM Group now has 18 companies – including 9 production sites – in Italy, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Singapore, China, India, USA, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Spain and Austria, each offering different products, according to the different types of industries of each area. This approach, according to which “the products follow the market”, has determined and keeps on determine the success and growth of COIM in the world. In the United States, where we have been working since 2005 with two production plants in New Jersey, we launched a expansion of the West Deptford (NJ) plant in July 2021 and a further increase in the production capacity of saturated polyesters in October 2021. Thanks to these investments we have increased by 1.5 times the production capacity of low- free TDI, MDI and PPDI prepolymers – used for the production of elastomers (products such as forklift wheels, printer rollers, skateboard wheels and the production of elements for oil and methane drilling) – and by 1.7 times the production capacity of saturated polyesters used in the production of materials for thermal insulation.
In addition to internal growth, another determining factor for the development of the Group is the acquisitions policy with downstream integration, in order to further expand the product portfolio, as with the very recent acquisition of Neoflex, in Spain. Specialized in the sector of single-component, two- component and Reactive Hot Melt polyurethane adhesives, Neoflex has allowed COIM to strengthen its presence in the polyurethane adhesives market and to decisively enter into a high-added value, constantly growing market.”
You have made a real green change in the footwear sector. What exactly does it consist of?
“Switching from fossil to renewable sources represents, for the footwear sector, a real turning point towards environmentally friendly solutions that can be used on a large scale. The Laripur RS thermoplastic polyurethanes and the Urexter RS microcellular polyurethane systems by COIM were developed from a careful process according to utmost sustainability; they are obtained from crops of wheat, corn, sugar cane with a controlled supply chain (all products are not suitable for the human and animal food industry) and, to a very limited extent, from vegetable oils. Meant for the manufacture of soles for different types of footwear – with a carbon content from renewable sources amounting 75% in the Laripur RS TPUs and 70% in the Urexter RS systems – these new biobased products’ performances are very similar to the one of fossil origin. Designed to offer high performance in terms of elasticity, resistance to wear and intense mechanical stress, as well as optimal aesthetics for coloring and texture, these products are compatible with traditional injection molding and extrusion technologies and do not require any changes to processes and production plants. Furthermore, their use guarantees a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions throughout the supply chain.”
Engineer Giuseppe Librandi, President and CEO of COIM