Producer of high-tech construction fibers now on its own feet

Low & Bonar sells Adfil, its macrosynthetic fiber business unit, to new owner

Low & Bonar officially sold its high-tech structural fiber division with brand name Adfil to a new owner on July 1, 2019. The international group's "concrete lab" can now continue on its own feet. With the same name and at the same location, but above all with a new, bold direction. "We want to be profitable within the year," CEO Tom Winters and COO Ives Swennen sound ambitious.

It had long been an open secret that the Low & Bonar international group wanted to raise cash by selling its Adfil structural fibers business unit so it could invest that money in divisions that the technical textiles specialist said were more profitable. Adfil stands for Anglo Danish Fibres Industry Limited, an originally Anglo-Danish company headquartered in Hull that produced microfibers, was purchased by Low & Bonar, which then integrated production in Belgium.

BUCKLE UP

In the spring of 2017, Low & Bonar invested in a brand-new concrete lab in Zele, East Flanders, to give the construction fibers a stronger foothold in the market, but in the end, the international group decided to sell the division because it was loss-making under their ownership. The new owner is a private investor who has successfully invested in companies several times in the past and thinks long term. Day-to-day management will be in the hands of CEO Tom Winters and COO Ives Swennen, both of whom will also become directors. Both men co-founded the concrete lab in 2017 and
So "move" with them, as do all 36 employees and all real estate and equipment.

Durus EasyFinish and Durus EasyShot synthetic macro fibers © Adfil

The Adfil brand name will also be the name of the new entity, which does remain in Zele. There is also a sales office in England, where six salespeople work. Tom Winters: "When we used to need money, we could turn to the group, now we will have to fend for ourselves and provide our own money. Our first big goal? To show that we will be profitable after one year. We also want to offer more service and we will be able to do that more consciously now as an independent company."

MARKET RIPE FOR MACRO FIBERS

Micro- and macro-synthetic fibers are increasingly used to reinforce concrete, as a sustainable alternative and/or supplement to steel reinforcement or steel fiber concrete reinforcement. Adding the right dosage of fibers actually makes steel netting or fibers unnecessary in many applications, such as in interior and exterior concrete pavements. Until a few years ago, the construction industry had little sympathy for the enormous technicality and possibilities of these synthetic fibers, but gradually the market seems to be ripe for it.

Winters: "More and more concrete producers, engineering firms and contractors prefer polymer fibers to conventional steel reinforcement. These three parties we also want to convince. Note: our fibers cannot replace all conventional steel reinforcement. They cannot be used in anything that is 'spanned,' such as bridge structures or concrete lofts over windows or doors."

Since the middle of last year, Adfil has become very active in Belgium, thanks in part to obtaining the so-called ATG certificate. "We took two years to test. Those tests were done with the worst possible concrete, the worst-case scenario thus. The workability and homogeneity of the concrete were thus proven during the most extreme conditions. Thanks to the certificate, Belgian companies are also now no longer forced to use only steel as reinforcement. In Belgium, about 12 million cubic meters of concrete are poured annually, of which another 95% are reinforced via steel mesh, so there is still a lot of potential to reinforce in a better way." Meanwhile, Adfil is working with Interbeton, one of the bigger players in Belgium.

NEW PRODUCTS, NEW APPLICATIONS

Adfil's turnover is now 15 million euros - volumes are increasing monthly - and it supplies its fibers directly to concrete plants or through preferred partners. The latter are commercial players who co-invest upfront and push their brand fully into the market. Adfil's customers for 90% are outside Belgium, but concrete plants in the Benelux are gradually falling for the charms of their fibers.

Construction of a compression layer with Durus EasyFinish reinforcement © Adfil

Synthetic fiber reinforcement still has a particularly large margin for growth, precisely because so many markets are still unexplored. The dosage (kilograms per cubic meter) is getting lower and lower, from 12 kg to 3 kg now. Ives Swennen: "We try to innovate in every facet of the fiber: in color, in binding of the fiber in concrete and in all mechanical properties such as force transmission, tensile strength and stiffness. We want to distinguish ourselves by putting a product on the market that is not based purely on fiber properties, but rather on real performance in concrete. Thus, after a lot of external testing, we can now test customers' exact concrete composition together with our fibers and thus know the exact performance."

The new owner recently decided to invest in additional sales staff with both technical and commercial knowledge. In the future, Adfil plans to reinvest all profits into the company. "By finally standing on our own feet, we will not only grow step by step, but we also want to make our people happier. We will now be a small but very flexible player, where our employees will also combine different roles. Therefore, we also really want to focus on job satisfaction, because we highly value the person behind the employee," both conclude.