Having built up a £ 40m precision coating and lamination business over the past few years, Bowater Group (Knightsbridge, GB-London SW1X 7NN) plans to double its size over the next five, aiming at £ 100m turnover by the end of the decade. Key factors in its favour are the growing sophistication of coating and laminating requirements, especially outside the traditional packaging sector, requiring high investment and expertise, while tighter environmental regulations prompt users to contract work to dedicated specialist companies.

Under the umbrella name of Rexham Custom Europe, the group has identified a number of niche markets where its skills can be exploited. As well as being able to handle films, foils, fabrics, foams and paper up to 1.6m width, with comprehensive facilities for coating and lamination, Rexham can offer great precision: coating from 1 micron upwards with plus/minus 0.1 micron accuracy, slitting down to 6mm with plus/minus 0.15mm accuracy, sheeting to plus/minus 0.5mm accuracy and coating in clean room to Class 1000 (less than 1000 x 0.5-15 micron particles per cubic foot).

Markets include: medical (wound-care, monitoring pads, transdermal drug delivery systems, ostomy devices and pill packaging), security (window safety film, security labels, identity card components, revenue and anti-counterfeit films), construction (barrier membranes, high temperature insulation, solar control and external weatherable surfacing), as well as imaging and electronics. As well as equipment skills, a necessary part of the business is wide-ranging expertise in materials, especially advanced polymers, with in-house development of formulations.

Bowater began to refocus its activities in 1987, concentrating especially on packaging, print and coated products. Acquisition of Rexham Inc in 1987 gave it a US base, and Norton Opax in 1989 added print to packaging. In 1992, Bowater acquired the packaging and some other businesses of the UK firms DRG Packaging and Cope Allman Packaging and, the following year, added SCI and Tower, significantly increasing its interests in coating and medical packaging.

For the year ending December 31, 1992, Bowater reported 23.9% turnover increase, to £ 1.57bn, with 48.7% increase in consolidated pre-tax profit, to £ 147.2m. Business is distributed widely: UK/Ireland 40%, Continental Europe 10.0%, Americas 35.0% and Australasia 15.0%. – Rexham Group currently operates from UK plants in N Wales, Runcorn and Bristol and, in 1992, opened a plant at Kerkrade/Belgium, designed for flexibility and growth, starting with a coating machine operating in Class 1000 clean room conditions.