Acquisitions
Acquisition is one of our key pillars for future success. Our strategy is to seek companies with unique capabilities that can deliver value for customers and shareholders.
Our acquisitions strategy
A track record of success
Rhenoflex: The acquisition of Rhenoflex GmbH (‘Rhenoflex’), one of the leading global manufacturers of sustainable structural material solutions for the footwear industry, was completed in August 2022 following satisfaction of the completion conditions. Following the recent acquisition of Texon, this represents a synergistic bolt-on acquisition and a unique opportunity to strengthen Coats’ position as a global leader in footwear components. The acquisition of Rhenoflex consolidates Coats’ presence in highly attractive and fast-growing athleisure and sports footwear market and strengthens positioning with key global footwear brands. In addition it enhances credentials in sustainability and expands breadth of sustainable product innovations with the addition of an in-house R&D team.
Texon: In July 2022 we signed an agreement to acquire Texon, a global leader in premium structural components and materials for the footwear, accessories and apparel industry. This is an important strategic acquisition, as it firmly establishes us as the global leader in premium growth markets. This builds upon an already successful Footwear & Accessories business and will add even greater value for our customers. Texon has a leading position in toe puff, heel counter and insoles and offers sustainable and innovative materials solutions across footwear and fashion accessories applications. Together we will further accelerate our growth story by leveraging the companies’ strong supply chain, customer networks, geographical footprint, and complementary industry expertise.
Pharr HP: The acquisition of Pharr High Performance Yarns (Pharr HP) was completed in February 2020. Pharr HP is a market leading manufacturer of high-performance engineered yarns and specialises in providing technical yarn solutions to the growing markets of Industrial Thermal Protection, Defence and Fire Service industries. The acquisition of Pharr HP’s manufacturing capabilities and customer base provides further expertise and scale to our existing Personal Protection business (part of the Performance Materials segment).
ThreadSol: In December 2018, we acquired ThreadSol, a cloud-based digital applications provider, which became part of Coats Digital. ThreadSol’s technology focuses on fabric usage optimisation in apparel manufacturing and helps customers reduce fabric waste and cost, and establish accurate product costing. The acquisition of ThreadSol followed shortly after the announcement in December 2018, of our strategic investment in Twine, an Israeli based technology start-up which has developed a revolutionary digital thread dyeing system.
Patrick Yarn Mills: The acquisition of Patrick Yarn Mills in December 2017 supports a key aspect of our growth strategy, to identify innovation synergies that build scale in high-tech sectors such as cut resistant and flame retardant yarns, and complement our skills in spinning technologies.
Gotex: In June 2016 we acquired Gotex, a Spanish company which designs and manufactures high-tech industrial yarns and tapes used in the telecommunications, energy and oil and gas sectors. Since acquisition Gotex has delivered significant revenue growth and geographic expansion.
Fast React: The acquisition of Fast React Systems in June 2016 and GSD in May 2015, allowed us to grow our services offering in the areas of improving customers’ productivity and operational efficiency.