Sustainable Nonwovens spoke to Carmine Cimini, process engineering and R&D director, and Enzo Pomilio, managing director, Cellulose Converting Solutions (CCS).
Sustainable Nonwovens: Can you explain why Italy is rather unique in respect of the global absorbent hygiene products (AHPs) industry and how the region of Pescara became so historically significant?
Carmine Cimini: When talking about these products in Italy for many years, it was always the Lines brand – in fact, at that time when a mother was buying a pack of diapers she would ask for “a bag of Lines”. Back then too, adult diaper products were simply a niche market and supplied mainly to people with serious health problems. I started my professional career in 1983 at the Faricerca organisation, which was the R&D centre of the Fater Group – the leader in the AHPs market in Italy, and the manufacturer of Lines. The business was completely new to me but I soon began to understand just how complex the technology behind a ‘simple’ product like a baby diaper or a sanitary napkin was. At the beginning, Fater was using manufacturing technology supplied by a Swedish supplier, but very soon its management realised a strategic step would be to develop the technology in-house. So in 1975, Fater founded its own machine manufacturing facility and soon after, other companies started up in the same business. This led to the area famously becoming known as ‘Nappy Valley’ – and it all started with the Lines brand.
SNW: CCS has evolved significantly and now appears to be at a new level in servicing the AHPs industry. Can you outline your product range in 2015 and its advantages?
Enzo Pomilio: Today CCS is a trusted and reliable partner to the AHP industry at a global level. A few years ago, we identified several opportunities in the adult pant, baby pant and male incontinence segments in which we invested significantly. Today we are benefiting from these decisions. From our point of view, adult pants, briefs and baby pants will continue to grow. Secondly, we had an excellent opportunity to partner up with one of our customers and enter into a new business – gender-specific products for male incontinence. This certainly meets a global need and we expect to see this segment grow significantly. CCS today is definitely an organisation that is playing a critical role in the AHP industry.
