Time travel through our history

surfactor today

Today, surfactor is the world market leader for many kinds of technical surfaces, especially for
plywood surfaces as well as fine veneer gluefilms with a brought customer base on all continents
(except Antarctic). 220 employees in Germany, Finland, Malaysia, Russia and USA take great
responsibility for our high standards which leads to a turn over of more than 80 mio. € per year.
surfactor produces more than 200 mio. sqm film per year - enough to cover 28,000 soccer fields.

New since over 75 years

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    The history of surfactor as a manufacturer of films used for the aviation industry can be traced back to the late 30s. After World War II Schoeppenstedt continued to produce phenolic glue films for the wood and furniture industry.

     

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    In the following years the Schoeppenstedt mill began with the production of the so called „Technical Synthetic Films“ (TEGO-TEX). The first melamine treater was installed in 1964 to serve the furniture industry with decorative films.

     

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    In the 1980s, the company invested in new machinery and diversified its product range by introducing laminates, edge bandings and foils. At that time the company was part of Casco group, later of Akzo Nobel Industries.

     

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    In 2003, Akzo Nobel sold its impregnated papers division, which included the Schöppenstedt plant as well as administration offices in Essen, to the private equity firms Deutsche Beteiligungs AG (Frankfurt) and Harvest Partners (New York). In January 2004, the company was renamed Coveright Surfaces GmbH.

    Between 2006 and 2009 the new owners invested another 15 mio € in plant and equipment: enlargement of production site, modern melamine impregnation lines and fully automated resin reactors and mixing stations, air purification according to the latest state of the art.

     

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    In June 2011 Coveright Surfaces Germany was acquired by Kajo Neukirchen GmbH, a well known family office. Kajo Neukirchen is one of Germany‘s most successful industrial managers and entrepreneurs – a long-term investor interested in developing its companies through organic growth and corporate acquisitions into a global leader in its segments. In 2012 the company was renamed surfactor Germany GmbH.

     

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    Following the acquisition of the 1982 started Finnish phenolic impregnation of Dynea Chemicals Oy in 2012, the subsidiary surfactor Finland Oy was founded. 2014 surfactor Americas LLC was founded in Seattle, Washington, USA in order to serve the US market.

     

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    In 2015 surfactor has aquired – together with the Neukirchen Group – a specialty paper mill in Lahnstein. The new company has been renamed to Lahnpaper GmbH.

    Lahnpaper produces a big variety of specialty papers and nonwovens with the capability to add interesting new properties to impregnated papers.

     

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    In 2016 surfactor bought from Kotkamills Oy its Malaysia based phenolic impregnation LP Pacific Films.

    LP Pacific Films has phenolic impregnation as well as own resin production. It serves the Asian market with phenolic films and core stock since 1997.

     

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    In May 2017 surfactor opens its brand new Customer- and Innovationcenter „InnoLab“ in Schöppenstedt.

    InnoLab enables innovation in an unprecedented way. Like in a mini factory, you can practice various processes including resin making, impregnation and overlaying in multiple ways. This generates speedy and creative innovation together with our customer.