Beontag opens new Ohio facility

Beontag’s new 80m USD manufacturing facility in Trotwood, Ohio, does not only represent the company’s biggest investment into the US market. The 200,000sqft facility is also Beontag’s biggest investment in its international expansion.

Beontag, a global provider of pressure-sensitive adhesives and smart tag technologies such as RFID and NFC, has rapidly grown over the past decade, adding locations worldwide. It is now the second-largest RFID label manufacturer in the world. The company has a presence in over 40 countries, over 2,000 employees and more than 20 facilities.

Beontag is also welcoming a new CEO. Alejandro Quiroz Centeno brings 30 years of experience and a background as an international business leader at companies including Prysmian, IDEX Corporation and Aptiv. He is replacing Ricardo Lobo, who served as CEO for nine years.

With the new Ohio factory, Beontag aims to enhance its presence in the US and scale up production with more efficient coaters, slitters and sheeters for roll labelstock, as well as with RFID technology.

By the end of 2025, the facility is expected to be able to ship up to 2.9 billion sqft of graphic and label materials and 3 billion RFID tags annually and to employ more than 300 workers.

The facility already has an 80in coater in production. When fully operational, the coater will be able to produce 50 million feet of material monthly. Beontag has also invested in its first round of slitters and sheeters, which are already operational.

“We knew that to maximize our potential with planned North American expansion, we would need to expand and enhance our operations”

Beontag has also acquired a second coater and RFID equipment, expected to be in operation by the end of Q1 of 2025. The facility has room for a third coater as well, which Beontag wants to add eventually. The Trotwood building’s RFID facility is opening in March.

The factory is expected to quadruple Beontag’s output capacity in North America.

Beontag has long been exporting products to clients in the US, particularly RFID products. This facility will allow them to provide those clients with better service.

‘We knew that to maximize our potential with planned North American expansion, we would need to expand and enhance our operations with state-ofthe-art equipment, the best people and a commitment to best-in-class facilities for a wide variety of solutions,’ says Thiago Horta, chief operating offi cer at Beontag.

Grand opening

The new Trotwood, Ohio, facility hosted a grand opening on October 16, 2024. Suppliers, customers, shareholders and local officials attended the event, where they viewed the facility’s machinery and learned about Beontag.

Lobo, who served as Beontag’s CEO at the time, started the event with a speech about the company’s values: community, sustainability and advancing women’s roles in the printing industry.

Yvette Paige, mayor of Trotwood, attended the ceremony. Paige hopes the new facility will bring generational wealth to Trotwood, a suburb of Dayton with a population of just over 20,000.

‘What you see today did not look like this years ago. We had an industrial farm that was barren,’ Paige said.

‘But now look at it,’ she continued. ‘We are exploding in Trotwood, but we couldn’t do it without the partners that wanted to come here and be with us.’

Global growth

Beontag, which marked its 40th anniversary last year, is going through a period of growth as it transitions from a Brazilian company to a global one. This transformation began in 2011, when BTG Pactual, a Brazilian financial business, invested in the company. Beontag was known then as CCRR; it changed its name to Beontag in 2021. The company had formed from a merger between labelstock manufacturer Colacril and converter RR Etiquetas. BTG Pactual’s investment enabled the company’s growth — first into RFID production and then into a series of acquisitions.

The company’s first acquisitions were in Brazil with a materials distributor Syntpaper and office label converter Pimaco. Then, it expanded globally, acquiring Digital Tags in France, LabID in Italy and more, eventually adding the Ohio-based Technicote in 2022.

The Technicote acquisition was Beontag’s first foray into the North American labelstock market. Technicote’s former facilities in Ohio and Indiana and a California distribution center now operate under the Beontag brand. Technicote’s Miamisburg, Ohio, site has been discontinued, and its operations and expertise have been consolidated into the new Trotwood facility.

Beontag identified the location for this new Trotwood factory in late 2023. The location was chosen due to its proximity to Technicote’s former facility in Miamisburg, Ohio, the quality of the facility itself and support from local officials.