Freudenberg Politex

Freudenberg Politex recognized as leading example in the green economy

The green economy "made in Italy" found its winners: more and more Italian companies take the environmental factor as an essential leverage to be more competitive on the market. The best virtuous realities were awarded with the Sustainable Development Award 2011, established for the third consecutive year by Sustainable Development Foundation and Ecomondo, with the assent of the President of Italian Republic.

The award was assigned to those companies which distinguished themselves in the green economy, being able to create products, activities or services bringing remarkable environmental advantages.

Freudenberg Politex was chosen by the jury to be one of the best ten companies working in the innovative products with the highest environmental benefits category. The merit plate was assigned by Edo Ronchi, President of the Foundation and in the past head of the Ministry of the Environment, on November 10th during Ecomondo Fair, held in Rimini.

Novedrate, November 2011

As announced in June, on October 1st the planned succession from Riccardo Sollini to Richard C. Shaw in the position of President and CEO of the Italy-based Freudenberg Politex Group happened with the symbolic handover of the keys.

The experience of Mr. Shaw in the nonwovens business dates back to the eighties, when he joined Freudenberg Texbond, the US subsidiary of Politex, which rapidly became leader in North America for the production of polyester reinforcements for bituminous roofing membranes.

In July Richard moved with his wife and two children to the Como lake, which is near Freudenberg Politex headquarters in Novedrate.

After more than 34 years in the Freudenberg Group, Dr. Sollini will continue the cooperation and maintain his role as Regional Representative Russia to foster the development of the Group in the Region. In Freudenberg Politex he has been appointed as member of the Supervisory Board, keeping also representative roles in some Italian associations.

The management board of Freudenberg Politex is now composed by Mr. Shaw (President & CEO), Dr. Rocco Marsico (CTO) and Dr. Riccardo Forni (CFO).

Novedrate, October 2011

MADE Expo
Fiera Milano, Rho
5-8 October 2011
Pav. 4, Booth N23 - P20

For Freudenberg Politex "Cities have a soul" and at MADE Expo, the International building exhibition in Milan, the Group will demonstrate how the soul of the city can be green, in principle as well as in reality.

Visitors of the booth will be able to see the green city live, built with Ecozero, thermal-acoustic insulation panels. Made of polyester recycled from post-consume PET bottle, the city will be built on a bed of flakes, the multicolored chips obtained from bottles washing, which are then transformed into polyester fiber, absolutely non-toxic and environmental friendly.

Freudenberg Politex is the major manufacturer of products in Europe for the construction industry made by recycling those plastics bottles we throw away every day in the waste containers. And at MADE Expo the Group will explain how in our Italian sites over 1 billion bottles per year are transformed into panels for thermal and acoustic insulation of buildings. But how many bottles do we need to manufacture one panel of Ecozero? Visitors of the stand will be able to read on bottles of water the answer to this interesting question.

And there is more: not only does Freudenberg Politex help the environment with its recycling processes, but the downstream use of Ecozero panels for thermal insulation of walls and rooftops makes energy efficient buildings, what contributes further to the reduction of environmental impacts.

The green soul of the city is Ecozero, green in principle as well as green in reality.

Novedrate, October 2011

The company in Macon (Georgia, US) recently received awards and certificates in recognition of its 360° approach to sustainability and in particular towards the environment, its associates and the community.

Freudenberg Texbond is leader in North America for the production of nonwovens for the construction industry, made of polyester recycled from post consume PET bottles.
On March 16th the Keeping Macon-Bibb Beautiful Commission (KMBBC), an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, awarded Freudenberg Texbond for its contribution in preserving and protecting our environment. The Macon-Bibb Commission commented that "Far before our country's emphasis on green business, Freudenberg Texbond factory in Macon was recycling more bottles than America could supply. KMBBC hopes to work with Freudenberg Texbond in the future to increase recycling in our community".

Like the other companies belonging to the Freudenberg Politex Group, which also obtained the endorsement of environmental claims through LCA and certification of the Environmental Product Declarations, Freudenberg Texbond has chosen the third party validation to confirm the responsible approach to sustainability.
The recycling efforts of the company have been thus recently certified by UL Environment Inc., which validated the claim "Texbond green polyester fiber is made from 100% recycled post-consumer PET". The UL Environment label ensures that the environmental claims being are accurate and not deceptive.

"And responsibility means also workplace safety, as we know that keeping our people safe is a key priority" comments Richard Shaw, President & CEO of the Company. For the third year Freudenberg Texbond has received the Award for Excellence from the Georgia Department of Labor, in recognition of Exceptional Workplace Safety in 2010. Excellence in Safety was recognized also by the Worker's Compensation Group Strategic Comp, which recently awarded the Macon team for the outstanding achievement of two years without a lost time accident.

Freudenberg Texbond LP is based in Macon, GA, USA and belongs to the Freudenberg Politex Group, world market leader in the production of polyester reinforcements for the roofing industry.

 Novedrate, March 2011

The strong pressure on raw material prices and altered competitive situations on the procurement side hamper Freudenberg Politex to pursue a stable commercial policy. The Group is again forced to buy key raw materials at any cost, in order to satisfy the market demand and keep its production plants in operation. The situation of global markets is changing from week to week and under these conditions it is not possible to make any short term plan or forecast.
Though understanding the difficulties of its customers, who are also facing the increase of other raw materials, Freudenberg Politex is obliged to revise the sale prices of its products with short term notice, month after month.

Novedrate, March 2011

Freudenberg Politex expectations on the escalation of raw material prices still continuing in 2011 were unfortunately confirmed: already in the first weeks of the year, the pressure on costs and also the shortage of key raw materials have been strongly penalizing all operations, impacting the entire supply chain.
To cope with the market demand and avoid stopping production lines, the Group is once again forced to buy at any price. For this reason, as announced in December, from February-March 2011 sales prices will be increased up to 13%, for all products and on all markets.

Novedrate, January 2011

Another step forward for Freudenberg Politex in Russia: a spunbond line is going to be installed in the Russian facility located in Nizhniy Novgorod Region for the production of polyester nonwovens for the construction market.

The overall investment above 20 million euro is part of the project started in the Nizhniy Novgorod Region in late 2004, when the industrial facility in Zavolzhie was purchased and progressively renovated. The start up of the first nonwovens line in 2006, the complete renovation of the building and the recent installation of a line for the production of geotextiles have allowed Freudenberg Politex to consolidate its leadership in Russian and CIS markets over the years.

The new spunbond line, planned to be on stream in the first half of 2012, will allow Freudenberg Politex to become the major Russian producer of nonwovens for construction manufactured with both spunbond and staple technology, either standard or reinforced. This important investment will put on the market more than 7.000 tons of polyester spunbond nonwovens, to be sold as backings for bituminous roofing membranes and for other speciality applications in the construction industry.

The spunbonded line for Russia will be realized with state of the art proprietary technology, fulfilling the Group's mission and strategy based on the core values of customer orientation, innovation and long term orientation. Furthermore it embodies the commitment of Freudenberg Politex to sustainable development, with the responsible use of economic, social and natural resources. The company in Russia grows not only by strengthening further the partnership with its customers, but also creating new workplaces and developing environmental friendly products and processes.

Press Release

Novedrate, January 2011

Thanks to this commitment, Freudenberg Politex has been able to show, through LCA studies and environmental certifications, how its recycling activities and investments in environmental friendly technologies allow a considerable reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

With the wish to involve and sensitize more and more its stakeholders on environmental protection, the Group invited the children of its associates all over the world to creatively express their ideas about environmental protection and recycling.
The drawings have been then used to realize Freudenberg Politex calendar 2011, which shows the children's expressive view of the environment.
Printed with vegetable inks on recycled paper, the calendar will be distributed to all Freudenberg Politex associates and other stakeholders. The hope is that for one entire year the drawings and paintings by the young artists will remind us that we can all contribute to protecting the environment, starting with an easy daily action like the separate collection of waste.

December 2010

The escalation of raw material prices is still out of control and continues to affect the situation in all markets. Prices and availability of polyester in particular have been further impacted by the shortage of cotton, which forced textile manufacturers to switch to polyester fiber. The prices of post consumer PET bottles have been strongly penalized as well, with a high pressure on the global demand.

Freudenberg Politex has partially absorbed and mitigated the strong prices increase with aggressive cost reduction programs. Since the instable trend of raw materials availability is expected to continue well into 2011, resulting in continued pressure on prices, Freudenberg Politex will be forced to revise its sales prices. The increase will be applied at the beginning of 2011 following the evolution of raw material costs.

December 2010