BASF Group: Chemical Intermediates: Lasting bonds of friendship

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	Lasting bonds of friendship
	For 33 years Collak and BASF have been working successfully together

For more than 30 years BASF and Collak SA, a Spanish customer, have been forging a special bond. Since the company’s founding in 1974 Collak, a leading Spanish producer of some 300 types of adhesives and sealants for the building industry, has been purchasing tetrahydrofuran (THF) exclusively from BASF. Even at the outset Alfonso Planas, Collak’s owner and CEO, chose BASF’s THF for reasons of quality. Nothing has changed since.

It all began when, following his studies, Planas sought to become an independent manufacturer in Spain’s adhesives industry. At the time he was launching his company Planas, a chemist, remembered some of his fellow students at the University of Barcelona who, in the meantime, had taken jobs, as luck would have it, with BASF. Planas did not hesitate long in his resolve and together with other investors established his adhesive company. That same day he contacted his ex-fellow students at BASF and received his first drum of THF shortly thereafter. Now he employs 75 people and buys close to 200 tons of THF annually. In Spain he is one of BASF’s major customers. The company, located in Les Franqueses del Vallès, a small city near Barcelona, uses THF as a solvent for a special adhesive applied in the building industry to weld PVC pipes together. THF provides the necessary stability. Experience shows that the bonded joints form a seal that lasts for decades.

About Collak

Established in 1974 by Alfonso Planas Combalía, COLLAK S.A. is an all-Spanish financed private company that focuses mainly on the production and distribution of adhesives, sealants, putties, impregnating liquids and ancillary products. The different departments (production, research & development and quality labs, sales, both national and international, and administration) are run by a team of 75 people who are dedicated to the prime goal of meeting all expectations to the fullest satisfaction of the company's customers. www.collak.es

Planas comments: "We are thoroughly satisfied with the quality of the product. Besides we value the special properties of BASF's THF - environmentally it is more compatible than comparable products." Taking yet another view, Manuel Altarriba, responsible for BASF's sales of intermediates in Spain, is happy to report: "The fact that Collak buys exclusively our product speaks for itself. For 33 years Collak has been a loyal and reliable partner."

As boss of the company Planas also makes customer satisfaction a keystone of his corporate philosophy: "Through our sales network we want to forge direct links to our customers. It is the only way to learn about their needs and provide them with innovative solutions. In addition we are counting on strong business partners, like BASF for instance, to help us in developing new products - developments that will keep our customers satisfied."

While his former fellow students have in the meantime retired, Planas continues to work as the owner and CEO of Collak. He is not even thinking of retirement although it would be well earned. “Should it come to that, I will take care - no matter what - that my successor retains the business association with BASF. Such a partnership is hard to find these days.”

September 2007