Tefisa /Ctra. Piera a Sant Sadurni, Km 05 08784 Piera, Spain
+34 937 70 60 60
IMS/ Bornholmsgatan, 13 SE-271 39 Ystad, Sweden
+46 411 822 800
[email protected]
www.murtranonwovens.com

Murtra is a family-owned Spanish company formed by two production sites located in Piera, Spain (Telas Y Fabricados No Tejidos S.A. – Tefisa), and in Ystad, Sweden (IMS Nonwoven AB), forming the nonwoven division named Murtra Nonwovens.

IMS Nonwoven, formerly Fiberduck, has been supplying drylaid chemically bonded materials in a wide range of business areas since 1959. With a long history and quality awareness, the company has dedicated significant resources to achieve strong growth, from adding a technical spunlace manufacturing line for the automotive industry to a chemical bonding production line for the medical sector.

Tefisa was founded in 1984 by the paper group Batlle. With its first chemical bonded nonwoven machine, the company began supplying the market with nonwovens for liquid absorption products such as diapers. After years of technological evolution and new product developments, Tefisa consolidated its position in the market and became one of the national leaders in industrial products, while expanding its activities in key sectors such as automotive, filtration, medical, construction and agriculture, among many others, in addition to expanding the geographical scope of its sales. In 2003, Tefisa was acquired by the Spanish textile group Industrias Murtra as part of the group’s diversification strategy, creating the nonwoven division Murtra Nonwovens. In 2008, Tefisa acquired Fiberduck and renamed the company IMS Nonwoven A.B.

One of Murtra Nonwovens’ main objectives is to replace an important part of its raw materials with ones from sustainable sources and to widen its product portfolio by offering sustainable, biodegradable and compostable materials. Currently, an important part of its R&D resources is dedicated to investigating new markets and material tendencies that could help the company be part of the circular economy—a clear bet for the future challenge of a green world.
The company also continues to innovate and grow with investments. In 2020, Murtra acquired a state-of-the-art laminating machine in order to support the automotives market and applied this knowledge for other sectors that require technical nonwovens and laminates. Additionally, different production process parts and tools are also being updated as part of the technological improvements that Murtra Nonwovens has been going through in the last eight years. The company is now able to offer a wide range of finishing and coating possibilities: film coated material, water repellent, oil repellent, flame retardant, serializable, biodegradable, composites, heat sealable, absorbent, fungicide, monolayer, non-slipping, moldable, printable and engineered to meet almost any requirements.

The company put the customer at the center of its decision-making process. “We have the ability to develop unique new materials to meet the specific needs and exact specifications of our customers,” says Alfons Lloret, general manager. “We analyze all inquiries with our sales and technical department to find the optimal solution that the customer expects for his project but not only this, our production process is orientated to offer flexibility and agility in response to all our customer’s needs to provide with sampling in the best timing possible.”

The year 2020 posed unprecedented challenges as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thanks to the effort, commitment and talent of all its teams, Murtra was able to rapidly develop a range of personal protective materials for overburdened healthcare systems during the pandemic, which led to a record turnover and results.

Also, last year brought new challenges with the semiconductor shortage—significantly reducing volumes for the automotive sector—and leading to huge raw material price increases. The first strategic decision the company made in the face of this crisis was to secure and guarantee supply to all customers, reallocate internal resources and diversify into new markets where Murtra’s position was not that strong such as construction and filtration.

But in each crisis new opportunities can arise. “2021 has shown an important growth in the nonwovens industry with new strategic alliances, expansion of manufacturing capabilities of many companies and innovation in the development of new materials, substrates and applications based on new trends in sustainability, electrification and digitalization,” says Lloret. “With growing investments and the reorganization of the supply chain, Murtra Nonwovens is definitely a company that has an important role to play in this changing scenario.”