HUBERGROUP ITALIA
Luengo Color is dedicated to the manufacture of pigment preparations and dyes, in liquid and solid form, for industry in general. It is a company specialized in the design of water-based, universal and solvent-based preparations, suitable for tintometric use, both industrial and point-of-sale. The company is positioned as a leading company in the sector in Spain and southern Europe, capable of creating tailor-made products for the customer. The company was founded in 2004 by Mr. Jaime Luengo and Mrs. Francisca Carreño and has a great experience and long trajectory of more than 40 years in the world of colour.
Due to the rapid growth of the company, in 2015 it moved its headquarters to larger facilities of 5000 m2 which allowed it to increase its production capacity to 15,000 MT per year. The two production plants are fully automated, thus being able to offer a better service to its customers.
The R&D&I laboratory, the driving force of the company, is always undergoing continuous training and has a highly qualified and experienced team. Luengo Color, certified ISO 9001:2015 and about to receive ISO 14001:2015 certification, is a company that is very committed to the environment and works to minimize the environmental impact of its activity and products. It has a photovoltaic installation that achieves a reduction of 182 Tm/year of CO2, an evaporator-depurator with which it recovers up to 10,000 litres per day in the production process (recovery rate of over 97%) and a solvent distiller with which it recovers 100% of the cleaning solvent.
Within the solid and wide range of products available, all comply with the European Regulation EC 1907/2006 (REACH):
– Luengonyl: high concentration water-based pigment dispersions for multiple applications (paints, latex, textile, etc.).
– Luengonyl HR: high performance pigment dispersions for application in water-based paints for industrial use and for exterior and interior application.
– Industrial: pigment preparations formulated on an aldehyde resin used for the formulation of solvent-borne paints and coatings.
– Industrial epoxy: dispersions of organic and inorganic pigments on a solvent-free 100% solids epoxy resin, compatible with epoxy and PUR systems, one or two-component.
– Lucarex: pigment preparations specially designed for outdoor exposure, suitable for working with a wide range of paints, coatings and silicates.
– Univertint / Dosytint: low and medium concentration pigment dispersions designed to work with point-of-sale and factory tintometric systems.
Jaime Luengo CEO of the company, talked about sustainability, new products and market development in Europe.
In the production of dyes or pigment preparations, how can we evaluate the sustainability of the production?
Jaime Luengo: “We understand that business objectives must drive sustainability, integrating environmental, social and governance aspects into our strategy and decision making. Luengo Color evaluates sustainability from different vectors. On one hand, regarding the environment, our aim is to minimise the environmental impact of our production processes. For this reason we have an environmental management system in accordance with the ISO 14001:2015 standard. We do our utmost to work towards a circular economy, for example by using alternative raw materials of responsible origin, or by ensuring the durability and efficiency of materials, as well as the reduction and recovery of waste”.
How important the architectural coatings and the construction sectors are for your products in terms of turnover?
“These sectors represent an important volume of Luengo Color’s total business, around 60%. We have a high demand for water-based product ranges, for facade cladding or the colouring of cements and microcements, for example, and other more specific epoxy and polyol-based ranges for the colouring of floors. These are applications with a high level of demand as they require high quality products due to the properties and resistance expected from them.
Customers request already formulated products for direct application in their coatings to minimize and optimize their production processes”.
Jaime Luengo, CEO of Luengo Color
Can you tell us about the new Luengonyl HR presented at the last ECS?
“The objectives of sustainability, environmental respect and health protection established by the European Union, through the new Directives and Regulations approved in recent years, have a considerable impact on the paints sector. At Luengo Color SLU, we believe that water-based paints for industrial use are the best option for reducing VOC emissions and, for this reason, we have designed and developed the Luengonyl HR range, under a new concept of high-performance pigment dispersion, high pigment concentration and free of binders. These products are perfectly suitable for working with all types of water-based paints and for exterior and interior applications, as the pigments selected are all highly resistant.
The use of the Luengonyl HR range avoids problems of flotation or pigment agglomeration in paints, once the color has been dosed. These products are designed to be used in both air-drying and baking paints. Thanks to their formulation and their high degree of micronisation, they have an extraordinary tinting and covering power, obtaining optimum color reproduction results in all types of water-based industrial paints”.
One of your strengths is your Laboratory. What’s new on the horizon in addition to the Luengonyl HR?
“Our laboratory is currently researching, designing, and developing new ranges of pigment pastes focused on the plastics sector, in order to work with more environmentally friendly and sustainable plasticizing agents. On the other hand, we are also working on improving the compatibility of our Univertint range, to make waterborne products compatible with a wider range of solvent-based paints. Finally, after 2 years of work, we will have completed our Lucarex range with several cool and warm effect colors for use in facades and coatings”.
In a very competitive sector like the coatings one, how do you deal with the different European markets? And in the Italian one?
“Luengo Color already has a well-established national presence. Although we already work with several countries in Europe, we have designed an internationalization plan, through which we carry out specific action plans for each territory. These action plans are carried out both to consolidate our presence in the market of the target country, as we are doing with France and Portugal, and to open new markets, or markets in which we do not have such a strong presence, such as Italy, which is a priority in our commercial actions for 2023-2024. Our objective is to act directly in Italy, offering technical and commercial advice and, in this way, to differentiate ourselves from the competition of multinational companies, giving a more personalized treatment to the client. We know that the Italian market is a demanding market, but Luengo Color has competitive advantages such as the possibility of making customized products according to the customer’s needs or our production facilities, which allow a significant capacity for reaction and adaptation. All this gives us the possibility to more than cover the demand generated by the increase in commercial activity and to respond quickly and agilely to the urgent demands of our customers”.
What is Luengo Color doing to decarbonize its own production?
“As I mentioned earlier, we work under the ISO 14001:2015 standard. Some of the points to highlight are:
– Plastic Zero Project: With the aim of minimizing the use of plastic as much as possible, we are committed to a new type of medium-capacity packaging that will reduce plastic consumption by 60% compared to 2022.
– We do not generate wastewater thanks to our water recovery system.
– We have a solvent distiller that allows us to recover all the cleaning solvent and reduce consumption and environmental impact, avoiding the purchase of between 15 and 20 MT/year.
– We have made a large investment in a photovoltaic installation of 550 solar panels with a power of 270kW and 3 inverters for a 100% green energy consumption, self-generated and self-consumed, without losses in its transport and without going through the electricity grid, which means a reduction of 186 Tm/year of CO2. This installation allows us to make annual savings of approximately 40%”.
