Showa Denko Acquires Nonstick Coatings Maker GMM Group

Showa Denko KK (SDK) acquired the Hong Kong-based non-stick coating chemicals maker GMM Group, which has manufacturing facilities in Zhuhai (China) and Ahmadabad (Gujarat, India).

Non-stick coating chemicals are materials to be coated on consumer goods including cookware, bakeware, and a variety of home electrical appliances, and on industrial goods including automotive parts and other industrial equipment, in order to prevent burning on, fouling, and soiling. The global market for non-stick coating chemicals is estimated at about Yen120 billion ($1.08 billion) a year.

GMM operates non-stick coating chemicals business mainly in the field of consumer goods including cookware, bakeware, and various home electrical appliances. Its major customers are the leading cookware manufacturing companies in the US. GMM has been steadily increasing sales by making the most of the superb properties of its products and the power of the differentiated brands promoted jointly with GMM’s customers.

GMM operates two manufacturing units in China and India, and can deliver its highly sophisticated engineering coatings directly to the local cookware manufacturing companies which are entrusted by major cookware makers to manufacture cookware to be sold in the US market. Cookware coated with GMM’s coatings is distributed via top US retailers. It has been estimated that approximately 40 million American families use cookware with GMM’s products on a daily basis.

In line with its ongoing medium-term business plan ‘Project 2020+’, which started at the beginning of 2016, Showa Denko aims to reform its own business structure to have more stable revenue streams, through creation of individualised businesses and increase in the ratio of its overseas sales.

SDK’s acquisition of GMM is a part of its strategic actions aiming to establish new individualised businesses through extension of the Showa Denko Group’s value chain into downstream markets and the sphere of its technologies, which form the foundation of the Group’s business activities.