“There are many great innovations in the market and many in the pipeline, but the most important trend overall is doing more with less,” CEO at a Finnish nonwovens manufacturers tells fibre2fashion.
In an exclusive chat, Marco Levi, the newly appointed CEO & president at Ahlstrom speaks about latest technological innovations in the nonwoven industry, vision of Ahlstrom, on hiking margins of nonwoven producers, etc.“There are many great innovations in the market and many in the pipeline, but the most important trend overall is doing more with less,” CEO at a #
Ahlstrom, founded in 1851 by Antti Ahlstrom is a family managed business and is one also one of the biggest nonwovens producers in the world, with net sales of approximately €1 billion per year.
Marco Levi was appointed as the president and CEO for Ahlstrom on June 16, 2014, before which he held several managerial designations in various companies including that of a lead representative at Dow Polyurethanes.
To the query on the latest technological innovations that he sees in the nonwovens sector, he adds, “With this, I mean, we continuously look to using lesser raw materials, energy and water, and still achieve, better level of product performance at competitive cost.”
About Ahlstrom and its vision, he explains, “Ahlstrom is a high performance fibre based materials' company operating globally. We aim to grow by offering products that enable a clean and healthy environment - such as clean air and water.
“Ahlstrom is very well known in the industry, especially for its filtration business; we are the number one provider of high performance filtration materials in the world.”
Ahlstrom recently opened a service centre in Vilnius, Lithuania, which will manage most of its finance, accounting and customer service operations in the EMEA region and plans to provide services in nine languages.
When quizzed on selecting Lithuania as an investment destination, he informs, “For Ahlstrom, customer service simply has to run smoothly, since we are serving customers all over the world; and our customers depend on us for meeting their own schedules and deliveries.
“I see great potential in Lithuania, since there is so much talent with university level education, business and language skills, etc. I was quite impressed with our newly recruited employees when I met them during the inauguration of the service centre.
On nonwoven industry being considered sustainable, he explains, “Nonwovens sector offers major opportunities for sustainable growth, since it uses a lot of raw materials that can be renewed and recycled for a wealth of applications.
However, there is still of lot that needs to be done, for example, in convincing consumers and customers that single use materials are in many cases, a more sustainable solution than traditional materials such as cotton.” (AR)
Click here to read the whole interview.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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