In early October, Colquimica Adhesives, a hot-melt adhesives manufacturer from Valongo, Portugal, welcomed a high-level delegation of visitors including the Portuguese Ambassador to the US, Francisco Duarte Lopes, the Portuguese Secretary of State for International Trade and Foreign Investment, Bernardo Ivo Cruz, and local elected officials Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and County Commissioner Susan Rodriguez McDowell to celebrate the official inauguration of the company in Charlotte.
Bernardo Ivo Cruz, Secretary of State for International Trade and Foreign Investment (left) &
Mayor Vi Lyles, City of Charlotte
With almost 70 years of activity, Colquimica Adhesives primarily supplies the markets of personal hygiene and nonwoven, mattresses, packaging, paper conversion and product assembly. In addition to Valongo, the company also has a subsidiary in Poland.
Colquimica Adhesives’ selection of Charlotte as the North American location for its operations and the company’s forecasted growth is a testament to the collaboration of economic development partners in the community to attract and support foreign direct investment. CLT Alliance team members initially assisted the company in understanding the Charlotte market, labor force, competitive advantages in infrastructure such as rail, interstates, and the CLT Airport, and other factors critical to site location. As Colquimica Adhesives moved forward with establishing a facility in Charlotte, both the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County provided expertise in identifying talent and navigating permitting needed to start production.
Since making the decision to locate in Charlotte, Colquimica Adhesives has created a state-of-the-art modern facility, incorporating high levels of automation, with just shy of $13 million in new investment, and the creation of over 30 jobs. In 2022, the U.S. subsidiary is expected to account for about $12 million in sales, which equates to 7% of the company’s turnover. That value is expected to jump to more than 50% in 2023, hitting $20 million and representing 10% of Colquimica’s global sales. The company has also engaged with local suppliers and partners. Colquimica Adhesives has spent more than $6 million with U.S. suppliers, $5.5 million was with North Carolina companies.
“I’m very pleased with the first 18 months of this new unit,” Sofia Koehler, vice president of Colquimica Group, said. “In Charlotte, we found the ideal conditions to accelerate the globalization of the company’s activity and explore the enormous potential of the North and Latin American markets.”
Sofia Koehler, Vice President (left) & João Pedro Koehler, CEO of Colquimica Group
The CLT Alliance’s continued attraction of foreign direct investment from companies such as Colquimica Adhesives is important to the Charlotte Region’s ecosystem as it brings diversity, capital investment, job creation and sales to existing industries in the Carolinas and beyond.
