How Zotefoams creates, delivers and sustains value
Zotefoams’ business model is built on deep foam materials expertise and an increasing focus on high‑value applications where performance, reliability and sustainability are critical. Through the Expanding Beyond the Core strategy, the Group is evolving its business model to access a broader opportunity set while maintaining disciplined capital allocation and a clear focus on returns.
The model is designed to deliver value over the short, medium and long term by bringing together customer‑led innovation, manufacturing capability and customer engagement, and directing them towards markets where Zotefoams’ capabilities are most relevant.
Our value proposition
Zotefoams provides advanced foam solutions that enable customers to meet demanding performance, safety and sustainability requirements. The Group’s manufacturing processes produce lightweight, durable materials that support both technical performance and resource efficiency.
By combining material science expertise with application insight, Zotefoams increasingly supports customers not only as a material supplier, but also as a solutions partner, helping to optimise performance, efficiency and sustainability across applications.
Our customers
Zotefoams serves a diverse global customer base across three market verticals:
Consumer & Lifestyle
Transport & Smart
Technologies
Construction &
Other Industrial
Customers range from global original equipment manufacturers to specialist converters and fabricators serving highly technical niche requirements, including industrial packaging, medical, defence and security applications. While end markets differ, customers are typically characterised by demanding technical requirements, long product lifecycles and a need for consistent performance at scale.
Customer needs increasingly shape how the Group innovates, invests and organises its capabilities. By engaging early in customer development programmes, Zotefoams works with customers from the initial design stage to understand requirements, test solutions and support product launch. This supports relationships, repeat business and more embedded roles within customer value chains.
What we do and where we sit in the value chain
Zotefoams operates across multiple stages of the value chain, combining materials expertise, advanced manufacturing capability and close customer collaboration to deliver both stable products and more specialised, higher-value solutions:
Customer-led innovation and material development
Zotefoams works closely with customers from the early stages of product development to understand application requirements such as weight reduction, durability, insulation, impact protection or chemical resistance. This activity is led by material scientists and application engineers, supported by commercial and technical teams with deep end-market knowledge.
Early engagement allows materials and formats to be tailored to specific applications, increasing the likelihood of adoption and supply.
Manufacturing of advanced foam materials
The Group manufactures advanced foam materials using a range of specialised processes designed to deliver consistent quality, scalability and reliability across different formats and specifications. Manufacturing capability is supported by significant capital investment, deep process expertise and operating discipline.
Expansion into engineered formats and applications
Building on its core materials capability, Zotefoams increasingly supplies products in engineered formats such as moulded, laminated or fabricated solutions. These formats enable easier integration into customer processes, strengthen switching costs and deepen Zotefoams’ position within customer value chains.
Technical collaboration and support
Technical collaboration continues throughout the product lifecycle, with application engineers and customer support teams providing guidance on processing, integration and performance optimisation. This supports scale‑up, regulatory compliance and ongoing optimisation over time.
Through Expanding Beyond the Core, the Group will selectively move further along the value chain where this enhances customer relevance, margin quality and strategic fit, while continuing to respect the role of partners and customers in downstream activities.
Sources of cash and how we create value
The Group generates revenue primarily through the sale of advanced foam materials and engineered solutions. Value is created through:
Differentiated performance supporting pricing discipline
Customer programmes providing volume stability
Increasing exposure to higher-value, application‑specific solutions
Disciplined management of cost, capital and working capital
Margin performance is influenced by product mix, manufacturing efficiency, pricing discipline and the level of content delivered.
Lower-complexity products typically deliver stable margins through scale and efficient asset utilisation. More complex, application‑specific solutions often require higher upfront investment and longer development cycles but can deliver stronger margins over extended product lifecycles once established.
As the business continues to evolve beyond its historical core, margin profiles are increasingly shaped by application complexity and solution content rather than material volume alone.
Sustainable competitive advantages
Zotefoams’ business model is supported by a set of durable competitive advantages that are difficult to replicate and underpin long-term value creation.
Deep materials expertise built over many decades, enabling precise tailoring of material properties to application requirements
High barriers to entry, including capital intensity, process know‑how and lengthy customer qualification cycles
Long‑standing customer relationships embedded in extended product lifecycles and repeat programmes
A geographically distributed manufacturing and innovation footprint, supporting proximity, resilience and scalability
Protection of intellectual property and trade secrets, safeguarding investment in innovation and performance differentiation
Typical uses of cash
Capital is deployed to support growth, resilience and returns, including:
Maintenance of safe, efficient and sustainable operations
Investment in innovation capabilities and new technologies
Selective capacity expansion and geographic footprint optimisation
Targeted M&A activities aligned to strategic priorities
Returns to shareholders through a progressive dividend policy
Capital allocation decisions are guided by strategic alignment, risk-adjusted returns and long-term value creation.
The role of the Group
The Group provides strategic direction, capital allocation, governance and capability development that would be difficult to replicate at a local level.
Group-level coordination supports resilience, consistency and knowledge sharing across regions while preserving local responsiveness.
This includes stewardship of intellectual property, common operating standards, talent development, risk management and compliance frameworks, providing confidence to customers, partners and other stakeholders.
Critical dependencies
The successful operation of the business model depends on several critical inputs and relationships, each of which is actively managed through targeted investment, diversification and risk management processes.
Skilled technical and operational talent
Access to specialist talent is managed through a combination of long-term workforce planning, investment in training and development, and the creation of technical and leadership career pathways. The Group places particular emphasis on developing deep process, materials and application expertise, recognising that much of this capability is built over time through experience and structured knowledge transfer. Succession planning and internal mobility further support resilience by reducing reliance on individual roles or locations.
Reliable access to polymer raw materials and energy
The Group manages raw material and energy dependencies through diversified supplier relationships, long-term sourcing arrangements and active procurement oversight. Where possible, alternative materials, formulations or supply routes are qualified in advance to reduce exposure to disruption. Energy efficiency initiatives and monitoring of consumption support both cost control and operational resilience in the face of volatile energy markets.
Specialist manufacturing equipment and infrastructure
Manufacturing capability is underpinned by significant ongoing capital investment in specialist equipment, facilities and maintenance programmes. Long asset lives and bespoke machinery require proactive lifecycle management, including planned upgrades, redundancy where appropriate and close relationships with equipment suppliers. This approach helps protect capacity, reliability and product quality over time.
Long-term customer and partner relationships
Customer and partner relationships are actively managed through early-stage collaboration, long qualification processes and ongoing technical support. These relationships are typically embedded through multi-year product lifecycles and supported by regular engagement between commercial, technical and operational teams. This depth of interaction helps improve demand visibility, supports joint problem-solving and strengthens mutual commitment over time.
Robust digital, data and systems capability
Digital and systems dependencies are managed through continued investment in core platforms, data governance and cybersecurity. The Group prioritises systems that support operational control, customer engagement and decision-making, while ensuring scalability and resilience across regions. Ongoing system upgrades and user adoption initiatives help maintain data quality and reduce operational risk.
These dependencies are reviewed regularly as part of the Group’s risk management and investment planning processes, ensuring that resources are allocated to areas most critical to performance, resilience and long-term value creation.
Evolution of the business model
The Expanding Beyond the Core strategy represents an evolution rather than a departure from the Group’s foundations. The business model continues to expand through:
Broader application coverage
Increased customer proximity
Greater involvement along the value chain
Selective use of digital and data‑enabled tools
This evolution supports access to a larger addressable market and higher-value growth opportunities.
SWOT overview
Strengths
Deep foam materials expertise; strong intellectual property and trade secrets; long‑standing customer relationships embedded in extended product lifecycles; geographically diversified manufacturing and innovation footprint.
Weaknesses
Capital-intensive manufacturing processes; exposure to cyclical demand in certain end markets; operational and organisational complexity associated with operating across multiple regions.
Opportunities
Expansion into higher-value engineered formats and applications; increased customer proximity in growth regions, particularly Asia; selective M&A to extend capabilities and market access; alignment with customer-led sustainability and lifecycle performance requirements.
Threats
Macroeconomic volatility and shareholder concentration; fluctuations in input costs and energy prices; evolving regulatory and compliance requirements; competitive innovation and capacity expansion by existing and new entrants.
Sustainability in a low-carbon economy
Zotefoams' materials are used in applications where lightweighting, durability and energy efficiency are increasingly important considerations over product lifecycles. In many end markets, these characteristics can support reduced material usage, extended service lives and improved energy efficiency in use.
The Group continues to invest in manufacturing processes and operational initiatives aimed at improving energy efficiency, reducing emissions and minimising waste.
Sustainability considerations are embedded within customer development activity, reflecting evolving regulatory requirements and customer expectations around lifecycle performance.
As customers increasingly prioritise decarbonisation and responsible material choices, the business model supports long‑term value creation by aligning application performance requirements with environmental considerations, while maintaining a disciplined and credible approach to sustainability claims.