BontexGeo is a manufacturer of geotextiles. In the European market there’s very little growth potential but there are lots of opportunities elsewhere in the world. Where exactly, though? And how can you explore those opportunities to a maximum? That’s where our Trade Development service comes in.

BontexGeo is an international manufacturer of geotextiles, with headquarters in the East Flanders town of Zele and production facilities in Belgium and Hungary. Geotextiles are materials which, among other uses, are laid underneath motorways and railway tracks in order to stabilise the construction and extend its lifetime.  The company is market leader in Europe and is looking to achieve further growth.  However, the market in Belgium and the wider Europe is now fairly flat and no extra growth would seem to be there for the picking.  So they’ll have to look elsewhere…but where exactly?

Relieving the client company of certain tasks

Our Trade Development department knows exactly how to go about things. As far as we know, no other bank in Belgium offers this type of service. The Trade Development network helps corporate clients to develop their business in new markets into which they would like to expand, relieving the client of the task of pursuing leads and contacts on the spot.

In some cases, at a client’s request, the Bank actually works through its worldwide network to seek out promising markets for the client. In such cases, our Trade Development experts take a close look at the client firm, examine its business model from top to bottom, make a worldwide search for relevant opportunities and then discuss those opportunities with the client, applying all their experience and expertise.

Under normal circumstances this service is of real benefit to the client. However, when a crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic makes it difficult – or even impossible – to travel abroad, it then becomes absolutely crucial.

“BontexGeo is a perfect example,” says BNP Paribas Fortis Trade Development Manager Rob Van Veen, explaining: “On 27 April, barely a week after the initial strategic Webex session with the client, Tom De Winter, our Relationship Manager for BontexGeo, brought me in on the discussions.  The company was having temporary problems with some aspects of its international search because of the lockdown, in addition to which there were potential extra opportunities in markets further afield.  It was of course obvious that if they were going to achieve expansion abroad we needed to go looking for major infrastructure projects, which meant that some new areas outside Europe soon came into consideration.”

Local partners are crucial

“Unfortunately it wasn’t feasible to travel, due to the coronavirus crisis, and in such a moment as that our way of doing things is of vital importance. We work with local ‘partners’ – external consultants who know the local culture, the economic situation and the industry there. They’re under contract to us and they’ll analyse the market and help our clients to find, for instance, distributors or agents. In this way we make it easier for the client to go in search of targeted growth,” Rob Van Veen tells us, adding: “BontexGeo was in fact pleasantly surprised that we were able to provide this service.”

“Moreover, our local partners regularly go and see the end-customer over there,” Rob points out. He knows from experience that “in some countries that’s essential if you want to make sure that the business runs smoothly. Those consultants also take care to ensure that our Belgian clients only do business with sound, reliable partners – which is a great relief to them.” With all of this, the Bank’s Trade Development department services are of enormous value to companies looking to expand abroad.

 

Oiling the machinery

BontexGeo is now working through the Bank’s consultant partners in two prospective markets in order to take proactive steps to prepare the ground there. All in all, this is a long process. “If you obtain your first order within 9 to 12 months that’s a success,” explains Rob. “In this particular case we got the news on 8 July that the first new contacts had been successful. That’s very positive.”

It’s positive for BontexGeo and for BNP Paribas as well. “The BNP Paribas Group’s worldwide network is of course extremely useful for growth-oriented corporate clients, and the reverse is equally true,”  Rob is quick to point out. “By assisting Belgian clients with their ventures abroad, the Trade Development department regularly wins over new clients and new business for other Group divisions in those countries. Very often we help to oil the machinery.”

Producing biogas through fermentation of agricultural waste? That is exactly what they do at Biomethane du Bois d'Arnelle, Belgium's largest production facility in Hainaut.

You can spot the three large grey domes and a cone-shaped roof from a distance in the countryside around Frasnes-lez-Gosselies. This is a biogas production unit. It took its creator and CEO, Jérôme Breton, 12 years to complete this project due to the lack of a legal and administrative framework. But today, the unit is operational, producing 70,000 MWh of energy.

Turning food waste into biomethane

"We recycle food waste and agricultural materials, livestock manure, straw, beet leaves, peelings, etc. from farmers in a 15-km radius around the site", says Jérôme Breton. "We work with 100 farmers for whom this represents additional income. In digesters, i.e., concrete tanks that are heated to 40°C, bacteria digest the material and produce biogas, consisting of 45% CO₂ and 55% CH₄ methane. We recover this biomethane through filtration, before injecting it into the natural gas distribution network. Fermented matter or digestate, a black liquid that is rich in organic matter, which is very nutritious for crops, is spread as a fertiliser in the surrounding region, where it is used to permanently store CO₂ in the soil and completely replaces chemical fertilisers."

Unrivalled performance

About 15% of the biogas is converted into electricity and heat, half of which is used for the unit’s own needs. The remaining 85% is purified and transformed into biomethane. Once it has been injected into the grid, this biomethane can be used as fuel or as a raw material for petrochemicals. It can also be used to power turbines, and the heat generated can be recovered, just like in a car engine. “While a cogeneration engine, which produces electricity and heat simultaneously, has a total efficiency of between 40 and 80%, our system allows 99.5% of the biogas produced to be injected into the grid”, the young entrepreneur explains. "The pressure varies in a distribution network. That way, the infrastructure can absorb injections without the need for additional investments to store them."

Growing to valorise

The company also grows maize, beets and cereals to valorise them as biogas: "We made a deliberate choice to grow 600 hectares of energy crops to offer farmers a complementary diversification pathway. This accounts for 30% of our raw materials. These crops are stored to allow us to 'smooth' the inflows into our digesters, which depend on agricultural and food activity, on a seasonal basis."

BNP Paribas Fortis, the only bank with such advanced skills

Jérôme Breton says the project would not have been possible without the support of BNP Paribas Fortis. "We would not have gotten funding if it wasn't for the work of their expert. It is the only bank to have such high-level skills in-house. All the other partners also benefited from the analyses and information that he provided to us! A strong, lasting relationship of trust has developed as a result. In my model, I didn't want to rely on public financing for what I do. At the same time, I wanted to produce at the right prices. We produce and sell our biomethane at 100 euros per megawatt hour, while market prices were close to 350 euros last August."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!

Elessent EMEIA is on a mission to make the chemical industry more environmentally friendly and sustainable through innovative methods and cleaner production processes.

"We strive to create cleaner, carbon-free production processes for our customers. Innovation is at the heart of what we do", says Sara Alvarez, Finance Manager at Elessent EMEAI. "We suggest less polluting alternatives to traditional industrial methods, allowing our customers to continue to develop products that are essential to our daily lives while significantly minimising their impact on the environment, particularly in terms of pollutants and CO₂ emissions."

4 key technologies

The metals, fertiliser, chemical and refinery industries make up the majority of the company’s customers, with Elessent EMEAI able to deliver complete turnkey production sites. Tjaart Van Der Walt, Director of Elessent EMEAI: "We have four flagship technologies. The first concerns the manufacture of a compound that is widely used in industry, from fertiliser manufacturers to pigment plants, namely sulphuric acid. This is obtained by burning sulphur. We have 90 years of expertise in site design – we have delivered more than a thousand sites – and process and energy recovery. These processes will be key to producing cleaner batteries."

Increased quality and yield

The company also has alkylation technologies (a reaction that is commonly used in organic chemistry) which is used to produce high octane fuels, for more efficient engines. These compounds are valuable for the petrochemical and refinery industries. "We operate at more than 100 alkylation sites around the world", continues Van Der Walt. "And 25 hydrocarbon hydrotreating sites. This is a crucial step in the refining process, during which some elements are removed from the oil. This includes reducing sulphur and nitrogen content to improve stability. Our proprietary soft hydrocracking technology allows us to recover more value from crude oil."

In addition to these processes, which optimise the quality and yield of hydrocarbons, the company also has “wet scrubbing” technologies, which are very effective in fume treatment.

Financial support and real industry expertise

"Our business is growing on a global scale. For our international expansion, we need the constant support of our bank, BNP Paribas Fortis, which, in addition to assisting us with the financial aspects, contributes its in-depth expertise in our industry", Sara Alvarez explains. "This cooperation is crucial in Morocco, Tunisia, India and South Africa, for example. For our long-term investments in these countries, we benefit from our bank’s advice, particularly in terms of resources and guarantees of payment: secured transactions, letters of credit, etc. The same goes for hedging currency risk, which is essential in the context of volatility. This partnership allows us to continue our international expansion."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!

Founded in 1974 in Genk, Nitto is now one of the most sustainable companies in the world. By 2045 - five years before Europe -, the company wants to become carbon neutral.

Although Nitto leads by example in terms of sustainability, the public doesn't know the company or its products. "This makes perfect sense because we operate in the B2B segment", explains Sam Strijckmans, CEO of Nitto for Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA). "Our products are mainly used in production processes or as part of a finished product, so there is no direct link with the end consumer. In Genk, we produce industrial adhesive tapes that are used in cars and a range of other applications. That's why we are relatively unknown."

Laptops, tablets and smartphones

But the Nitto Group's presence in our daily lives is very real. Consumer electronics account for more than 50% of its global turnover. "We produce polarising films for all electronic devices with or without touch screen: flat screens, laptops, tablets, smart watches or (foldable) smartphones.
This means that most of the major mobile phone manufacturers are Nitto customers", he says. But there's more: Nitto is also a supplier of the automotive, pharmaceutical, steel, glass, furniture and personal care industries. The Nitto range consists of more than 13,500 products for a wide range of industries.

Platinum medal

In early 2022, EcoVadis, a rating agency that assesses corporate sustainability, awarded Nitto a platinum medal. "We are one of the most sustainable companies in the world. We are very committed to the European Green Deal, a set of initiatives aimed at making the European Union climate neutral by 2050. In fact, we are even more ambitious than the EU, as our goal is to be fully carbon neutral by 2045", Sam Strijckmans says. The Nitto CEO is strongly convinced that sustainability and entrepreneurship can go hand in hand. "Our planet has enough energy, in the form of water, sun and wind, to meet all our needs. The real challenge lies in capturing, storing and distributing this energy. The only answer to this is technological innovation, something to which Nitto is contributing.”

Optimising production processes

Nitto is continuously improving its production processes to ensure that they are more environment-friendly. "The production of protective films and adhesive tapes is a good example of our approach. The glue we use is made from petroleum solvents; when it cures, these solvents evaporate. Under the new method that we adopted, the new solvents that we distil from these vapours can be re-injected into the circuit. That way, we recover 60% of the solvents we use! Soon we will achieve zero emissions, by replacing petroleum solvents with inorganic material, but we are still experimenting with this process", he adds. In terms of electricity, the Nitto EMEA Group has gone 100% green. "But we want to go one step further. The real challenge is not to buy green electricity, but to reduce our energy requirements." Nitto has also succeeded in reducing the ecological footprint of its workforce, with a green car policy and electric lease bikes. "Any company can do this", he is quick to stress.

Energy-efficient products

Developing and offering more sustainable solutions to its customers is another major challenge for Nitto. "Here's an example. On the back of many refrigerators, you still have an evaporator, which looks like a grill. Sometimes this component will ice up, activating a heating element that defrosts it. But this is a very energy-consuming process. We have developed a coating which, when applied to the evaporator, reduces the risk of icing. The heating element is thus activated less frequently, reducing energy consumption in the process. This can amount to a reduction of 165 grammes of CO₂ per day for a fridge, or 60 kilogrammes a year. This may not seem much, but if you bear in mind that there are still two million European refrigerators with evaporators, this boils down to a total reduction of 120,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year", says Nitto EMEA's CEO.

Sustainability engrained in the company's DNA 

BNP Paribas Fortis has been Nitto’s financial partner for several decades. According to Sam Strijckmans, this makes perfect sense: "The bank shares our environment-friendly philosophy. Sustainability is ingrained in their DNA, and ours too. The new BNP Paribas Fortis headquarters, which are almost energy-neutral, are ample proof of this. And so is socially responsible investment (SRI), thanks to the bank's very broad range of sustainable financial products. But we also look to the bank for inspiration, for example through the organisation of seminars and panel discussions on eco-conscious leadership."

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!

In light of the current environmental challenges, Farming for Climate supports the agroecological transition of Belgian farmers by raising the required financing with national companies, including BNP Paribas Fortis.

"Mum, dad, how can we take action on climate?" It is this question that led to the creation of Farming for Climate, a non-profit organisation founded by a group of parents from the world of business. Their ambition? To incentivise farmers and accelerate their transition to agroecology. "Following the climate marches by young people in 2018, we wondered how we could play an active role on our level. How could we make a local contribution to combating global warming, biodiversity loss and their consequences?", explains Christophe Adant, who is an impact entrepreneur at Farming for Climate.

Caring for people and nature

Initially, they started thinking about organic food boxes. But as they learned more about the production chain, these volunteers came to the conclusion that they could have a much greater impact by promoting agroecology. "In the current climate crisis, agriculture is both a victim and partly responsible, as it generates 20–25% of greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time it has to deal with dry soils due to drought, flooding, among others", he adds. "The agricultural sector can also be part of the solution, however: agroecology is a smart approach to agriculture, which takes care of both humans and nature. This means, among other things, that 3 tonnes of CO₂ per hectare per year can be captured or avoided. It also has benefits in terms of restoring biodiversity, preserving soil quality, water management, producing healthy, local food, and so on. That’s why we wanted to support our farmers on their agro-ecological transition pathway."

Taking the agroecology leap

Farming for Climate offers companies financial support for transition projects that are implemented by Belgian farms. "The support consists of specialised advice, as well as investments in equipment, trees, seeds, etc. The yield loss during the transition period, from three to five years, is also compensated. Finally, we are also creating a community of farmers in transition, to generate synergies, inspire, or overcome the fear of change", explains Christophe Adant. The sponsoring companies, meanwhile, make a commitment with a concrete, immediate and local impact. "Planting trees in a country on the other side of the world has its merits. But our soils, hedges and orchards also need the support of our companies!"

BNP Paribas Fortis, partnering with Farming for Climate

A message that did not fall on deaf ears at BNP Paribas Fortis, which joined forces with Farming for Climate. "The bank has developed financial products, with part of the profit dedicated to financing transitional projects on ten Belgian farms, i.e., almost 443 hectares. In other words, in choosing this product, the bank’s customers contribute to change on the local level", he says. In addition to this impact, links and synergies are established between farmers and businesses. "An example? There is a Walloon brewer who has incorporated the agricultural production of the farm it supports in its value chain, to produce 100% local, carbon-capturing beer. " The loop has thus been closed, but at Farming for Climate, which is involved in various regional and European “green” initiatives, the buck doesn't stop there. “By 2030, we want to assist 1,000 farms in transition, i.e., we want to capture and avoid 300,000 tonnes of CO₂!"

Entrepreneurial success

At BNP Paribas Fortis, we are particularly proud to be supporting passionate, inspiring entrepreneurs. Because building the entrepreneurship of the future together is also an example of Positive Banking!