What are the consequences of this acquisition? And what can we expect specifically for the market of (wooden) floors? These are two of the questions we asked Dr. Alexander Wörndle and Rossitza Dimitrova, respectively Segment Head Global Key Accounts Coatings, Global Technical Marketing Coatings, and Head of Technical Marketing, Middle East and Africa for Heubach. Our interlocutors are based in Germany and South Africa.

“The acquisition of Clariant’s Global Colorants Business was realised by the Heubach Group and SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors”, says Dr. Wörndle. “The newly combined Heubach Group is a technological and quality leader and operates globally from 19 manufacturing facilities across Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, employing approximately 3,000 people and with our headquarters in Vienna, Austria.”

New colorants for wood coatings
The new Heubach Group recently developed new colorants and solutions for wood, thus also targeting the sector of wooden and resilient floors. Rossitza Dimitrova explains: Sustainability and innovations are our focus, when developing products or solutions for specific applications. Our colourants are non flammable, non-toxic, and do not contain lead-chromate nor APEO, complying to the latest European regulations and suitable for the modern low VOC coatings for wood.”

“Our solutions for wood colouration are based on safer colourants with improved compatibility to a wide range of customer products for wood. Customers can chose between “ready-to-use” or “tailor-made” systems. Along with providing the right colourants for the right application, we are offering to our customers technical support to create new colour formulations, latest trending shades and marketing materials, such as wood colour catalogues. In that way, customers can implement total solutions for wood and wooden flooring, with excellent, durable performance, improved compatibility and brillance, both indoors and outdoors. In our range, we provide colorants suitable for solvent-based and water-based applications, as well as UV-cured coatings, and we can support our customers to meet the requirements of the market.”

“It is important to show our customers what can be achieved, especially when it comes to trend colours”, adds Dr. Wörndle. “One of the first questions customers ask is about colours: which colours do you offer, what can I do with these or can I create whatever colour I wish? To help them, Rossitza has specifically worked on a colour book for wood to demonstrate what can be done with our various product offers for wood coatings – from timeless shades to the latest trend colors. We partly draw from knowledge generated in other areas, like our recently published Color Trends 2022 for Decorative Paints or the 2025 Automotive Styling Shades Trend Book, which we launched in 2021.

“One of our product ranges is compatible with aliphatic solvent-based and wax-based products for wood”, Rossitza elaborates. “These are eco-friendlier colourants for products, based on natural materials such as plant oils and waxes. Our colourants are recommended not only for colouration of wood, but also for products preserving the wood and renewing and polishing of wooden surfaces.”

Dr. Wörndle answers our question about who the Heubach Group wants to target with its products: “This is not in the first instance the parquet installer, but rather his or her provider of raw materials. Any manufacturer of colourful wood or colour blends is our customer. They can use our readymade colour blends and apply these on their wood products, both on new floors and while refurbishing old wooden floors.”

“We also target customers who are impregnating wood”, concludes Rossitza Dimitrova. “The impregnation of wood can be done by using different methods, e.g using vacuum, high pressure, high temperature, wax, chemicals, etc. In the process of impregnating the wood, along with the wax and the chemicals for preservation of the wood customers add our colorants to simulate natural wood finishes, such as rare, indigenous types of wood, which can’t be used for mass production. This has a lot of advantages, as we can meet any design demand.

Connected to sustainability, this allows our customers to use pinewood for example, which grows fast and can be replanted easily. After the treatment process employing colourants, the final finish can simulate rosewood, oak, teak or other exotic species. This is protecting indigeneous or slowgrowing types of wood, which in turns is protecting our environment.”

www.heubachcolor.com