Technologically, polyurethane forms the leitmotiv for the Group’s highly diverse activities and wide range of products. Polyurethane technology, in both manufacturing and conversion, forms the basis for new, innovative applications and for improving the quality of existing products.

There is a centralised purchasing policy for chemical raw materials (mainly polyols and isocyanates). This has enabled Recticel to acquire an important position as buyer of these raw materials, for that matter the second largest in the world. All plants benefit from this. The Group has also taken steps to combine purchases of other strategic raw materials, such as latex, textiles and metal components for the Bedding business line.

Although the Group’s joint activities have been divided into four different business lines, it is sometimes difficult to draw firm lines between them and to mark off all the applications strictly.

A large number of products of the Technical foams sector, for example, are used in the automotive industry and mattress centres for the Bedding business line are supplied by the Flexible foams division. These, and other examples, clearly show that there is overlapping between the various business lines which in a large number of cases can therefore be considered as complementary. In this way, certain business lines derive benefit from the possibilities offered by others, which is a clear illustration of the economies of scale which this complementarity entails.

All business lines are characterised by the need for their own specific marketing strategy. For all that, there are also parallels. For instance, the large-scale advertising campaign in the Bedding business line for Literie Bultex® also paved the way for the brand name Comfort Bultex®. ‘Comfort Bultex’ has grown in the Flexible foams business line since 1995 to become the only filling material able to gain a competitive advantage from its brand name and its visibility.

Offcuts of foam left over from the conversion process are recycled. In this way, the trim foam from various activities is manufactured into new, rebound foam which in turn is used for applications in all the business lines.