The group, chaired by Alfonso Cirera Santasusana, has invested EUR 2 million to obtain 90% of the fibre spinner in Burgos, Spain, whilst the remaining 10% will stay with Italian Montefibre SpA.

Following the agreement, Mr Cirera becomes the President of Montefibre Hispania SA and Juan Carlos Rovira remains the CEO of the firm.

Montefibre project

Praedium hopes to repeat the same milestones achieved with Nylstar, currently the head of its fashion group and the developer of premium polyamide yarns and premium polyamide fabrics known under the brand Meryl.

The Montefibre project is based on a powerful strategy to revive its brand Leacril and hence guarantee the continuity and rentability of the Spanish plant in the future. This strategy will be pursued in two phases.

Firstly, the reopening of the acrylic plant and re-launching of its commercial network will be executed. During a second stage, an investment of EUR 100 million will be made to create a Spanish carbon fibre producer, for which the group is seeking strategic partners.

Leacril brand

With the reopening of the acrylic plant, Montefibre will market again its Leacril brand, one of its most valuable assets, which comes in different varieties, mainly for fashion.

The brand management and marketing are key to move the commodity business towards sectors where reputation and quality linked to the Leacril brand will create an added value, the company reports.

A good example is the work achieved by Nylstar with its brand Meryl. As a result of Praedium's management, 18 months after the recuperation of the brand, Meryl started being used again for more than 200 high level brands, mainly in the woman and sports markets, where average price of Nylstar products have grown by more than 20%.    

Strong marketing strategy

Montefibre will enter the market in this new stage offering 45.600 annual tons of acrylic fibre to over 210 customers in 30 countries and expects to generate a revenue volume of EUR 110 million.

“The future Montefibre will focus on its brand, Leacril, in a strong marketing strategy and a focus on added-value products. All in all, we want to build a long term sustainable project. We have the experience and the will to do it well,” commented Alfonso Cirera, Praedium's President.

Carbon fibre business

The second axis of the Montefibre project is the carbon fibre business, for which the group is seeking strategic partners in each of the fields of application of this material, such as infrastructure, automotive, wind power, naval and defence.

Montefibre has its own technology for the production of carbon fibre from acrylic, and the aim is to allocate part of the Montefibre plant to produce 3.000 annual tons of industrial quality carbon fibre, making this plant one of the most important European plants in this sector.

www.nylstar.com