Azelis Mexico Dedicates Innovation Center

Innovation requires collaboration. No company in any industry can afford to go it alone. Azelis Americas’ new innovation center in Mexico City enables formulators to work side-by-side with Azelis experts to create the next generation of the coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers (CASE). According to company executives, the investment enables Azelis to provide an unsurpassed level of service, technical support and innovative solution for its customers. At the same time, the new state-of-the-art labs deliver on its mission of “Innovation through formulation.”

The opening underscores the growing importance of the region. Azelis is a solutions provider to the food ingredients and specialty chemicals industry. Overall, the company services 15 specific markets worldwide, including CASE segments. The expansion in Mexico relays the company’s commitment to invest and grow its operations in Latin America. Azelis already has operations in Monterrey, Merida, and Guadalajara.

“Our Mexico center is unique because it is home to several application labs within one facility. This leads to more innovative collaboration,” explained Azelis Americas President and CEO Frank Bergonzi. “Technical discussions now include more diversity, a key to a well-rounded solution. The Regional Innovation Center has advanced capabilities and market consciousness to grow with the growing region. It is also set up to collaborate with the rest of the Americas region, further advancing our expertise.”

According to Bergonzi, Azelis works to form a partnership with its customers to be an extension of their development.

“We work closely with them to understand their unique needs so we can assist with formulation development or product improvement. They will come to us with an area of interest, and we can help them create a solution,” he explained. “This could mean addressing an issue with a current product, looking for a sustainable material, or making a new product to advance in the market. Azelis is unique because we can look at any part of the formulation because of our large portfolio and experience. Once we have a solution devised, we test the materials to prove performance.”

Expanding Its Presence

A bit of background. In January 2020, Azelis completed the acquisition of Megafarma, S.A. de C.V., a premier specialty chemicals and food ingredient distributor in Mexico. In 2021, Azelis opened its Regional Innovation Center. Adjacent to the Regional Innovation Center, Azelis opened new offices which serve as the Mexico headquarters for the newly rebranded business as Azelis Mexico. Located next to the Regional Innovation Center with its five industry-specific application labs, and a sixth application lab under construction and expected to open in Q3 this year, the new headquarters will provide the foundation for growing the Mexico-based team and further expanding into Latin America.

“The opening of our new headquarters underscores Azelis’ commitment to growing its leading position in providing specialty ingredients and innovative solutions in Mexico,” said Eduardo Salinas, managing director, Azelis Latin America. “Our new headquarters brings our sales, marketing and technical experts under one roof. Collaboration between team members and with our customers and principals is a significant contributing factor to our success. The new headquarters and innovation center will further support our strategy.”

The site houses the leadership, marketing, and sales for all core market segments, including CASE, rubber and plastics additives (RPA), personal care and homecare and industrial cleaning (H&IC), food and nutrition, pharma and healthcare, and animal health, to support growth in Mexico. The site will also host virtual and live customer seminars, interactive formulation workshops, customer technical training, as well as internal training for sales and support teams—all with the collaborative and innovative spirit that embodies the company, supporting all stages of the development process for its clients, from concept to final formulation.

Also in June, Azelis announced an agreement to acquire the majority shares of ROCSA Colombia S.A., a specialty chemical distributor active in both life sciences and industrial chemical markets in South America. The acquisition represents a strategic expansion of the group’s footprint, reinforcing its platform to execute its growth strategy in the region. The transaction closed on July 1.

“ROCSA brings a robust portfolio and performance track record, which is an important step in our growth strategy in South America,” observed Bergonzi. “ROCSA maintains numerous strong relationships with principals and customers, and they share our commitment to innovation and sustainability.”

A Unique Set-Up

“Having our teams together can really accelerate innovation and improve communication,” explained Bergonzi. “Our commercial teams have forged the relationships to the customer and really understand their businesses. The technical team can provide excellent service with our available chemistries. Our market teams can help to best relay innovation and share with the market. We have to work together and having everyone under one roof makes the collaboration not only easy but expected for the best service.”

But regardless of the industry, customers realize several benefits. Bergonzi explained Azelis’ services get customers to the next step in development either through the introduction of a new chemistry, improvement with the combinations of chemistries, or better understanding of the technology.

“If we can learn from our customers and we can also teach them about the functions of our products we can both win,” he added. “We can offer diversity to the ideas with our background and formulation expertise which can provide an extension to a customer’s development team. Together we can find a well-suited solution.”

A Broad Product Range

Of course, the best ability is availability. Azelis offers a broad range of chemicals for use in every market it competes.

For the coating, adhesive, sealants and elastomer (CASE) market, the Azelis portfolio includes a wide range of extenders, fillers, and reinforcements varying in mineralogy. Resins, polymers and binders include acrylics, amines, epoxy resins, isocyanates, polyols, styrene butadiene, urethane prepolymers, vinyl acetate/ethylene and more. Azelis also supplies color and functional pigments for several applications. Finally, the Azelis specialty chemical portfolio includes adhesion promoters, antioxidants, anti-static agents, biocides/fungicides, caster emulsions and oil, catalysts, chain extenders, coalescents, crosslinkers, defoamers, dispersing agents, emulsifiers, epoxy curatives and reactive diluents, flame retardants, intermediates, light stabilizers, molecular sieves, open time extenders, plasticizers, rheology modifiers, silicones, surfactants, waxes, wetting agents and more.

A Center Of Activity

The new 10,000 square-foot (930 square meters) facility is located in the northern outskirts of Mexico City and is managed by Claudia Barrera, laboratory director. The application labs provide custom formulations, product development, regulatory compliance, problem solving and sales support. The center also has capabilities to host virtual and live customer seminars, interactive formulation workshops and hands-on technical training for sales teams.

“At the innovation center we offer optimization of formulas, starting point formulas, evaluations such as accelerated weathering, rheology studies, physicochemical, mechanical and optical properties, as well as development of new products,” explained Barrera. “Our key is to provide innovative technical solutions and educate customers on the use of our products, offering them competitive technical analysis and support with evaluations of new products for use in local formulations.”

According to Barrera, the CASE lab includes application equipment to ensure the performance of the formulations the lab builds to meet the requirements of the customer. Equipment includes viscometers, Zahn cups, lab stirrers, shakers, moisture content equipment, dry recorder, pH meter, microscope, precision balances, pectrophotometer, glossmeter, weatherometer, drawdowns, conical mandrel, permeability cup, stability equipment and other performance instrumentation.

This equipment is used to formulate industrial coatings for metal protection, general industrial and OEM auto refinish, floor coatings, and wood coatings. The CASE team formulates architectural coatings as well for interior and exterior applications. The center can perform application testing of some elastomers as well.

The plastics lab helps Azelis customers formulate for various plastic materials through the use of its single/twin-screw extruder for cast film, blown film and compounding applications.

“We can monitor melt flow index, color change, gloss and hardness,” said Barrera. “With our QUV and Universal testing capabilities, we can test the durability and physical properties of the formulations, from the injection molding process.”

And, of course, the innovation center has a full complement of specialists capable of developing products for coatings, inks and plastics manufacturers.

“By innovating through formulation, we seek to provide comprehensive support to our customers and thus position ourselves as the best chemical products company in Mexico and Latin America,” concluded Barrera.

“More than a supplier, at Azelis Mexico we seek to be a strategic partner.”