With a legacy of continuous growth and transformation, ITASA is poised for greater achievements in the years to come
ITASA has been manufacturing high quality release liners for a variety of applications and industries since 1974. Today, the company is considered a global reference in the release liner market and is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Its success is the result of continuous investment to strengthen its presence across five continents. The company has a strong position in Europe and the US, and is becoming progressively stronger in the Middle East, Asia and South America. With a focus on its customers, ITASA offers the best service with maximum flexibility and personalized solutions, striving to place the customer at the center of decisions.
“The company’s past 50 years have been about investing for growth. It started as a family business in Spain and over the next 30 or so years, there were a series of investments in new silicone coating machines, and production and warehouse capacity,” begins Jackson Pettit, Senior Director of Marketing and R&D. “I think the major inflection point for the company came when we built our plant in Mexico. That was in 2018 in Querétaro. We invested in a new facility which has been incredibly successful. So much so, we’ve since doubled our capacity there.”
ITASA now represents more than half a century of dedication to excellence and a relentless pursuit of innovation. As a part of Mativ Holdings, Inc. (Mativ), a global leader in specialty materials, the company is poised for even greater achievements in the years to come. Mativ was formed in 2022 when SWM and Neenah combined to create a global leader in specialty materials that manufactures on three continents and generates sales in nearly 100 countries through its family of business-to-business and consumer product brands.
Aligned objectives
“I lead our product management, marketing, and R&D team for our industrials and release liners business, which includes ITASA,” Jackson continues. “One of the more fulfilling things in these first eight months in this role has been not just learning the business, but the people too. It’s a phenomenal group of people who live and breathe this business.
“While the past 50 years have been about growth in our core business, I think the next 50 will be more about new product innovation and how we can do things that deliver on the unmet needs of customers in the market. Having a flexible facility that allows us to test new ideas and new concepts has helped a lot. I think it’s become an expectation of our customers that we will help them with the challenges they’re facing. We’re building our capabilities through R&D and can experiment a lot more to develop new products that fulfil those unmet needs. We encourage our customers to come to us; we find potential in the impossible and are trying to live by that ethos. From a technology investment standpoint, we’re exploring unique coating applications that can be applied to provide a unique set of benefits or performance attributes that don’t currently exist in the market today,” he elaborates.
“When you bring companies together, there’s often a tendency to want to tap into that collective knowledge straightaway. In so doing, it’s easy to bypass the values that have led to a company’s success. Therefore, one of the things I try to do and encourage the rest of the team to do is focus on the people, values, and legacy of a business. When different businesses are brought together, there will always be challenges and particularly so, in a global organization. It’s important to respect and value each part of what makes that culture unique. At the same time, it’s crucial to rally the team to develop global strategies and objectives that everybody can get behind.”
Full-service solution
Working relationships are equally important from a supplier perspective too, as Jackson details: “We have good long-standing relationships with suppliers. We’re
reliable and dependable for them, which is critical when you consider some of the crises we’ve experienced over the past three-to-four years. To support our clients, we need to collaborate effectively with our suppliers. ITASA has knowledge that supports other parts of our business, so, we are exploring how we can provide a full-service solution, across many different material types. We want our customers to know that under the Mativ umbrella, collectively, we are their innovation partner.”
Director of Product Management and Strategy, Pablo Galiana, joins the conversation. “I started with ITASA 11 years ago, working on a plan to invest in a production site in the Americas. I moved to Mexico for four years and that’s when we decided to invest in our new site in Querétaro to help us grow in that region. I was sales director initially but for the last six months, have been fulfilling my current role as global Product Manager,” he explains. “In 2023, as Jackson said, we doubled production capacity at our Mexico facility with a coating line and two slitters, which has proven to be an incredibly successful investment.
“For some time, we have been embracing a whirlwind of evolution, growth, and adaptation. Our global footprint is expanding, our technologies are advancing and our focus on innovation remains steadfast. In the short term, we are focused on increasing our portfolio and range of polyester-based release liner solutions and for the future, we will be looking at more sustainable solutions in terms of release liners made from different materials and production methods, targeting the graphics and personal care markets.
Customer collaboration
“We’ve started work on a capacity expansion plan that will take place in a couple of years. The plan is to expand our capacity with new assets to enable continued growth in the European region as well as expansion of our capabilities and product portfolio. While we’re active in several markets, we’re also looking at Asia, as it is the fastest growing region worldwide for release liners. Not having a footprint in Asia limits our opportunities for growth. So, we are actively exploring potential solutions in terms of becoming an active player in the Asian market,” said Pablo.
“I think 2025 is going to be a good year for us and the industry. We’ve come through three years of supply chain disruption and demand variation, which makes it difficult to plan and prepare. Hopefully, 2025 will realize all the opportunities we’ve been working on over the last year or so. Celebrating our 50th anniversary gives us the chance to reflect on our accomplishments over the years and bolsters our confidence in achieving future goals of becoming one of the main players in Europe, as well as a well-recognized name in the North American market.”
“We prioritize R&D,” adds Natacha Valera, Technical Manager. “We focus on collaboration and work with our customers, suppliers and science partners to co-create new solutions that will meet customer requirements. We work with a dedicated team of scientists who work on rapid prototyping for customers. If a customer asks us to develop a new release liner for a specific adhesive, for instance, we will start on a small scale and then test the concept. This enables us to scale quickly while enhancing efficiencies and saving resources.
Championing circular economy
“Whether to reduce carbon footprint, enhance quality or add value, we can work on developing new technologies to improve our solutions. We are currently developing a tool to calculate the carbon footprint of our products. It is important to be able to provide this information to our customers and for us to have it to support data-driven decision making. This data can be used to improve efficiency by reducing the amount of energy we need to cure silicon, for example. We are also working on our product portfolio to explore post-consumer recycled fibers and other alternative materials to support our customers’ transition to more sustainable solutions.”
Indeed, ITASA has achieved the From Waste to Resources: ZERO TO LANDFILL seal from Saica Natur, a Saica Group company specializing in waste management and environmental services, which in turn is audited and verified by the multinational certification body TÜV SÜD. This seal highlights the initiatives in waste recovery between ITASA and Saica Natur. With this recognition, ITASA becomes an example in its sector in the management of its waste to bring the circular economy closer to its customers.
Heading into the future, ITASA will maintain its unwavering dedication to fostering environmental responsibility in every aspect of its operations. This is embodied by the collective efforts of its team, partners, and stakeholders as the company strives to make a positive impact on the planet.