Rhodia Sealants - Challenging Boundaries

Since inventing silicone sealant in 1958, Rhodia has continued developing innovative sealant products predominantly for the construction and glazing industry.

'Challenging Boundaries' is Rhodia's signature, reflecting the spirit of innovation and partnership that characterises how they do business and how they work.

Rhodia Sealants Ltd is a subsidiary of the Rhodia Group, a giant speciality chemicals manufacturing company employing 30,000 people worldwide with a turnover in excess of £4 billion.

The group has many different facilities in the UK, all concentrating on different areas of the business.

One area of specialism and a stand-alone division, is silicones.

Rhodia Sealants is an intrinsic part of this speciality division and has seen considerable growth and development over recent years.

Located in Leicester, Rhodia Sealants is the group's only silicone sealant production site in the UK, concentrating on the manufacture of silicone and non-silicone products, predominantly for the construction and glazing industry.

Raw material is manufactured in a number of different facilities across Europe and then shipped to Leicester.

Here it is mixed, packed and distributed to customers directly or through a network of national distributors in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.

Rhodia Sealants opened its Leicester premises in 1996, when it acquired a privately owned sealant manufacturing facility.

At that time the factory had a throughput of 500,000 cartridges per month, a figure which has now reached more than a million.

The facility is incredibly flexible, with numerous filling lines and local pigmentation of the silicone available.

Since inventing silicone sealant in 1958, Rhodia has continued developing innovative sealant products, including acetoxy, alcoxy, methoxy and oxime curing silicones and fire rated products.

Using pioneering Rhodalis* Technology, a new generation of waterbased, environmentally friendly silicones and coatings has also been introduced, providing benefits such as water clean-up, damp surface adhesion and paintability.

ELCH PRO - launched at Interbuild 2004 Having met an ambitious target for growth over this last year, Rhodia Sealants has set similar goals for the coming year by launching a new product range for the Builders Merchant sector.

The brand is already very well established across Europe, has market-leading presence and is called ELCH PRO.

ELCH, Elk (Moose): derived from the Greek word 'alke', meaning strength - just one of the outstanding properties of ELCH PRO sealants.

A strong animal living in harsh, cold and wet weather - ideal conditions for ELCH PRO sealant protection! Rhodia's innovative and proven sealant technology is now being used within this new exciting ELCH PRO brand of professional grade products.

ELCH PRO benefits from the strength and expertise of the manufacturer - strength in sealants.

In a statement, Simon Tyreman, Business Manager for ELCH PRO said about this exciting new range and strategy, "Entering the UK Builders Merchant sector is a natural move for Rhodia Sealants as we already sell to various distributors within the construction industry and this move will enable Rhodia to homogenise its position across Europe.

The main benefits Builders Merchants can expect are excellent quality products, value for money, on time delivery, an extensive product range and above all, the knowledge and support of a market leading manufacturer with forward thinking, innovative ideas." The comprehensive ELCH PRO range offers the professional builder seven main product groups: Construction, Sanitary, Building Adhesives, Roofing, Glazing, Fire Rated and Building Chemicals.

Back to top