I’m very pleased to introduce the Novachem company to you.
With great pleasure, a few years ago, I met Mauro Zemignani, Novachem Srl’s managing director and member, and I realized immediately that he was not just a marketing professional, but also a highly skilful technician who showed all his competente speaking about pigments and dyeing products.
He had indeed a wide and firm knowledge of market topics. So, he aroused my curiosity and I asked him about his education; he answered that he had spent twenty years of his career working with multinational companies in the pigments, dyeing products and additives area, to further increase his working experiencein the resin world, not only referred to the coating products and printing inks, but also to other sectors such as plastic
materials, rubber, wood, leather and others. His experience has lead him to meet highly skilful laboratory technicians working in various sectors who he currently cooperates with, to manufacture chemical products and specialties, directly developed and formulated by Novachem.
I asked him whether he could explain to me what he meant, as I thought that Novachem was only a trade company which purchased and sold raw materials and specialties. He told me that Novachem, contrary to
many trade companies, is not merely a representative of other companies, but through its own facility and technical competence, they formulate and guarantee their own customized products, which are launched on the market, without having to depend on the existing formulations offered on the market. Strongly supported by this strategy, they are currently primary customers of Research and
Development, testing laboratories and subcontracting manufacturers. Among Novachem’s customers there are some of the most important and wellknown companies working on international markets for various application sectors.
Some time ago Novachem obtained the ISO 9001 certification.

After 15 years working life, Novachem can now offer a range of tested and guaranteed products working on the market with these
trademarks:

• Novapon™: it is a range of dyeing products featuring bright, intense and deep colours, with an excellent solvent solubilità for flexographic or rotogravure printing inks, for metal PES films and aluminum and also for wood, leather and the coating product industry.
• Nova: a range of organic pigments with high solid property, used in many sectors such as coating products, printing inks and plastic materials.
• Novalack S: a range of metal complex and concentrated dyeing products,
  liquid, dissolved. These products can be also water diluted and used for nitrocellulose systems.
• Novalack WS: a range of highly concentrated liquid dyeing products, water diluted with excellent lightfastness, ideal for the wood coating products sector, for wood and varnishes and plastic and leather industry.
• Novaflush: a range of pigment pastes based on transparent iron oxides, used in the wood sector, mainly for water, long and short oil and solventborne systems.
• Novaderm: a range of both liquid and powder dyeing products, especially designed for the leather tinting process. They are highly absorbent dyeing products.
• Novatinto: multipurpose pigment pastes used for solventborne short/long oil solvent based systems, ideal for the coating industry.
• Novasperse: a range of highly concentrated pigmented pastes for the coating industry in the waterborne products sector. They are organic and inorganic pigments, high solid also used for tintometric systems.
• Novacolor UV: a range of highly concentrated pigmented pastes for the UV polymerization of coating products and inks by roll application with also the possibilità of a complete tintometric system.
• Novapur: the range includes two basic products, a wax and silica free waterborne and solventborne ones for a hiding and anti-scratching effect.
• Novasoft: the range includes two products featuring the same characteristics as Novapur, ready for use.
• Novacure: two products with high technical characteristics have been developed for photo-polymerization (through polymerization) of both transparent, white and pigmented products. They allow the conversion of coating products and inks from the liquid phase to the solid one by UV radiation at room temperature.
• Novastab: a range of stabilizers for synthetic polymers against the photooxidation degradation caused by the sun light and by weathering. They are used in the plastic material, rubber, adhesive, inks and water and solventborne coating products sectors.
• Novasorb: these special types of light stabilizers, in case they are combined, protect against yellowing, gloss rate decrease as well as cracking occurrences. They are used in the plastic, rubber, cosmetics, adhesive, varnish, and water and solventborne sectors.

Last August, Novachem signed an agreement with Picassian for the distribution of its products in Italy.

Picassian Polymer
Picassian Polymer, a Sthal Division, is a new company working in the market, but with a long time history in the field of polyurethane, acrylic and crosslinkers technology. The company offers a wide range of polymers for coatings and printing inks formulators, including solvent free polyurethane dispersions, selfcrosslinking acrylics, UV crosslinked polyurethanes and the carbodiimide based crosslinkers.

Picassian Polymer is the Sthal Holdings BV’s working unit with more than 1000 professionals and 7 manufacturing plants all over the world.

• – 1914: Sthal establishes a company in Boston (USA) for the leather finishing process
• – 1950: Sthal establishes a polymer manufacturing unit, called Polyvinyl Chemical
• – 1985: ICI acquires Sthal and Polyvinyl (Beatrice Chemicals)
• – 1980 and ’90: Polyvinyl, renamed ICI Resins, Zeneca Resine, Avecia NeoResins
• – 2002: Stahl becomes an independent company
• -2004: NeoResins Avecia is purchased by DSM
• – 2005: Picassian Polymers becomes a Sthal’s global business unit.

To tell the truth it should be said that Mauro Zemignani’s philosophy has shown to be a winning one and since1998 till now Novachem has gone on growing so that it currently covers nearly all the national country with an excellent increase abroad. With regard to the international activity I would like to ask you:

I see that you usually travel abroad; given the economic crisis that we are going through, what do you think about the coating production in Europe for the future?
In my personal opinion, within the European Union zone, a possible change will concern the small-medium enterprises, which, due to the current economic and financial situation, will bring about new industrial mergers. On the contrary, we witness the more and more frequent transfer of the manufacturing units to non EU countries, because of lower costs and of a less demanding legislation.

I know that you have just come back from India and everyone knows that it represents a growing and leading economy in that area. Can you tell me what you think about this?
The Indian market is huge and it offers great development possibilities. Novachem has extended its activities in India with the development of waterborne products so as to offer a better eco-compatibility although at present the Indian market is more related to solventborne products. However, we export some innovative products which are very successful. Holding a prevailing position in such a country is not possible and as far as this sector is concerned, we have to face national situations and their own capabilities, also due to the European technologies.
Finding new market opportunities is not simple, as, over time, it has been acquired the ability to work and monitor the whole sector, up to the production of intermediate products. With regard to these latter they also target to the Chinese and Japanese markets. I like working in India, I’ve met good technicians and very reliable and competent persons, and, in my opinion, combining the Italian creativeness with the Indian expertise, important projects could be developed.

It seems that also Brasil is going through a high development process; in your opinion is it a country where investments are worthwhile?
Novachem is active in Brasil since we manage to sell products to Italian affiliated companies. It is a completely new market where we are taking into account some development chances, but this implies the establishment of a proper facility which allows steady growth opportunities.

Let’s talk of such a “blissful” China: according to your experience, is it a country to be afraid of or one to be known better? I mean, are we all bound to speak Chinese?
As we know, China is a very rich country, but in our sector we can say that we own better laboratories which can offer a very high and steady quality product.
Some years ago, I was afraid that Chinese company might grow, becoming a matter of concern, but this fear has become less dramatic now. I realize that the customer contacts Novachem because he has the possibilità to find a certified, controlled and top quality product. Working with China, also due to the not so targeted quality inspections, customers risk receiving products which do not meet their specific application needs. China is very tenacious and we always receive heaps of mails from Chinese companies seeking new customers in the European market, but, although all this, we have managed to set a steady relationship with our customers who, in the beginning, may have tested the Chinese products, mainly for economic reasons, but that have received irregular supplies and delivery time or even received a product which did not meet their specific application requirements.Therefore, also the competente of those who sell and supply raw materials is essential and, with regard to this, Novachem is very efficient as they offer the best raw material with all its technical details for a specific application. This is possible working close to the customer and through a wide knowledge of additives, resins, pigments and whatever the formulation is based on, so as to create synergies with the customers who look for reliability and competente in this sector.

Going back home, in your opinion shall we be able to become a powerful country for coating production?
Till some time ago, I was optimistic, but now I realize that the situation is difficult and the period we are going through is really dramatic. I think that companies working in this sector will keep their status quo without achieving great improvements. The hope of a progress for the future should rely on the research and development activities for high performance products against the highly numerous commodities products which are offered by the developing countries.

Can you speak about Novachem and about other possible expected novelties?
Novachem is extending its activities abroad, targeting more and more niche products and searching for the best product according to the required application.