November 26th, 2007

Paris-based Imerys Group has reinforced its heightened presence in the subcontinent by increasing its stand area at Indian Ceramics 2008 by around 20%. This an encouraging sign for the exhibition from one of the world’s major materials suppliers in this field. Imerys now operates 213 mines and pits all over the world, involving 25 different minerals or minerals groups.

In August this year in India, a final agreement was signed with ICICI Venture for the acquisition of a 99% stake in ACE, the Indian leader in monolithic refractories. ACE specialises in monolithic refractory solutions and has large market shares. With two plants located in central India and five sales agencies in the country’s major cities, ACE achieves annual sales of over €50 million and employs almost 550 people.

With this acquisition, Calderys, Imerys’ subsidiary specialising in monolithic refractories, which has had a sales agency in India since 2002, will be able to benefit fully from the strong growth expected in the Indian monolithic refractories market by combining its technological expertise with ACE’s industrial assets and excellent commercial platform.

This was not Imerys’ only positive move in the Indian ceramic industry this year. Reflecting the group’s belief that this can only be regarded as a high growth area – reflected by its continued support for the Indian Ceramics series of exhibitions – Imerys further invested by acquiring 100% of the capital of Jumbo Mining Ltd, an Indian feldspar producer. Feldspar is an essential mineral alongside ball clay and kaolin for floor tile, sanitaryware and tableware manufacturing.

Jumbo Mining is headquartered in Hyderabad (capital of Andrah Pradesh State) and has high-quality mineral reserves and two plants in southeast India. This operation will enable the group to step up its development in the dynamic ceramics market in Asia and the Middle East.

Jumbo currently produces around 140,000 tons of potassium feldspar per annum with 67 employees across the two plants and Imerys sees the acquisition as key for its growth in Asia. It gives Imerys a very good basis for its future development in the ceramic markets in this region.

Imerys’ direct investment in India is bound to cause a stir as we look forward to the next Mumbai show in March and these supply lines – backed up by world class research, technical back-up and product development – will prove to be a major draw for visitors from the whitewares sector in particular in their quest for ever enhanced quality.