MARINE INDUSTRY/WATER SPORTS
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

On 2018 Karey Foam Solutions became SeaDek Certified Fabricator for Spain & Portugal. Since then we were involved in the organization of 3 CI’s trainings, having as a result
the establishment of an over 20 SeaDek CI’s network in Spain & Portugal. Whenever getting SeaDek authorization we have also managed to get OEM accounts both in Spain and Europe.

We have been promoting SeaDek brand participating in the most important shows
in the industry; PALMA BOAT SHOW, SALON NAUTICO BARCELONA, VALENCIA BOAT SHOW, MEDSEA ALICANTE in Spain and NAUTICAMPO LISBOA in Portugal.

Karey Foam Solutions R&D+i department has also been in charge of several new product developments as the Flat Fender and Rib Fender.

In the last 3 years the Marine Industry escalated from the 4th to the 1st position
in Karey Foam Solutions sales ranking by industry. 2021 1stsemester sales
in the marine industry already exceed yearly sales from 2020.

Consolidation
and sales increase through CI’s and OEM’s during 1st Semester 2021:

BRUNSWICK marine
in poland 

(OEM) 

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+289% sales increase

TAHE outdoors
/former BIC Sports 

(Water Sports key acount)

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+265% sales increase

OCEVAN

(CI’s network and OEM’s
in Spain & Portugal)

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+157% sales increase

Z-Nautic Marine/Zodiac

(OEM) 

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+109% sales increase

SPORTS & LEISURE INDUSTRY
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

Since the creation of Equilibrium brand yoga and fitness mats and accesories mainly but also different types of floorings, we have managed to lure key OEM accounts within the yoga, fitness and fashion lifestyle brands.

We have followed a sales strategy in which we are selling Equilibrium products both online (Equilibrium website and different Marketplaces) and offline (through European dealers/wholesalers keeping stock). At the same time Equilibrium is also helping us as “showroom” in order to gain OEM accounts in the industry.

Karey Foam Solutions is continuously investing in the promotion of Equilibrium brand in the main industry trade shows as FIBO, YOGA OM LONDON and WANDERLUST.

Creation of Equilibrium brand for yoga & fitness mats and accessories:

Sales strategy 

A) Equilibrium brand
‍
Online:
‍

Offline:
‍

B) OEM’s ‍‍
‍

Manufacturing yoga mats and accesories for key accounts in the yoga, fitness and fashion/active wear brands: LOTUSCRAFTS, YOGA MATTERS, KURMA-YOGA, BEYOND YOGA, CASALL, OYSHO, Massimo Dutti, ZARA.

We’re Premium Foam Makers.

01

Establishment
of the company

Karey Foam Solutions S.A. was founded in 1986.
From the beginnings our production was focused on Rubber sheet and expanded EVA sheet manufacturing only oriented on the footwear industry and fully national sales.

02

Shareholders families

Karey Foam Solutions is a limited company owned by a group of 4 family shareholders. Each of them contributed on the company establishment and nowadays the BOD is formed by some of the original shareholders individuals together with other new family members.

53.5

%

Rudiez family

(Jose & Jaime Rudiez Segura)

25

%

Gutiérrez family

(Alberto Gutiérrez Garrido)

15

%

Ferrandez family

(Jose & Joaquin Ferrandez Asencio)

6.5

%

Miralles family

(Antonio Miralles)

03

Location.
Production layout

Karey Foam Solutions is located in Alicante province, situated on the Mediterranean coast, south-east of Spain.

Alicante is…

Very well connected by train, plane or by land, Alicante and its surroundings are very well known in Spain and abroad for being one of the preferred destinations for tourists from all around Europe.

We supply by sea containers from Valencia and by land transportation to our closest neighbor countries in Europe in less than 1 week time.

KFS’s production layout is separated into 3 factories situated in Agost and San Vicente del Raspeig, only 10 km from Alicante downtown.

Headquarters

Agost. Alicante. Spain

Logistics Center

San Vicente. Alicante. Spain

Conversion Plant

San Vicente. Alicante. Spain

04

Cronology

Early years 1986-1995

EVA foam. Karey Foam Solutions

EVA stands for Ethyl-vinyl-acetate, a cross linked thermoplastic elastomer material. With a closed cell structure the EVA foam is light, soft and flexible and we develop tailored innovative blends to meet any project or product requirements.

On footwear applications the EVA foam production was originally started in Brazil, for flip flop manufacturing as a substitute of expanded rubber blends, being EVA’s foam major advantages lightness, comfort and colorway. Karey Foam Solutions was pioneer in Spain and Europe to start producing EVA foam, as on the late 80’s still EVA foam was quite unknown here.

During those years, the footwear industry in Spain experienced a huge demand of production either from Spanish and international shoe brands, and that is how KFS started to focus primarily on footwear, supplying our sheets to shoe outsole and shoe manufacturers. Sales during those years were managed by 2 major local distributors and the complete production capacity was sold easily as demand was greater than product offer.

1995-2015

Internationalization & diversification sales strategy

Due to our specialization on EVA manufacturing for footwear, in 1995 Karey Foam Solutions starts its internationalization approaching first neighbors countries as Italy and Portugal. We established sales representative agreements including warehouse with EVA and Rubber sheet inventory in Oporto (Portugal) and Le Marche (Italy) to be strategically located close by each country industry customers. 25 years later we still rely on the same representatives as part of our vision, mutual trust on our customers and collaborators.

At the same time Karey Foam Solutions creates their Export Department to manage all the international sales. Competition in Spain and Italy takes place during this period and we start searching for new markets and industries to promote our foam materials and keep growing. 

We approach our first customers within Orthopedics, Animal Flooring and Car Wash industries and we start building our diversification strategy into these 3 new sectors together with Footwear.

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2015-2021

Together with the growth in sales, greater importance of certain key accounts, KFS also grows in personnel with new profesional profile recruit. Finished products innovation and B2C product orientation requires certain new skills in the managing of departments as operations, production, quality and logistics where we are forced to retrain the old way of doing things and move a step forward achieving the professionalization on our organization.

Our evolution to finished product manufacturing forces the company to learn quick on foam conversion process and invest in new machinery as we keep innovating and developing new products. Planet Coverters is established in 2020 to perform many different conversion process and foam material transformation. 

During these 7 years period, Karey Foam Solutions experiences an important business growth, consolidates and starts working with new key accounts concentrated within its 4 major industries. At the same time we get introduced into two new industries: Marine/Water Sports and Sports/Leisure and start balancing our sales strategy combining foam materials, semi-finished and finished products. 

Industry evolution 2015 - 2019

Footwear
& Fashion accesories
Marine Industry
Water Sports
Orthopedics
& Podiatry
Animal
Flooring
Car
Wash
Sports
& Leisure
See all

2020 The year of Covid 19

Industry evolution 2020

Footwear
& Fashion accesories
Marine Industry
Water Sports
Orthopedics
& Podiatry
Animal
Flooring
Car
Wash
Sports
& Leisure
See all

While COVID 19 impacts on most of our industries business, we managed to maintain steady Marine Industry/Water Sports and experience a big increase on the demand of Sports & Leisure (yoga/fitness mats and accessories)

2021 Post pandemic year

Industry evolution 2021* (1stsemester)

Footwear
& Fashion accesories
Marine Industry
Water Sports
Orthopedics
& Podiatry
Animal
Flooring
Car
Wash
Sports
& Leisure
See all

Industry evolution 2021* (1st semester)

Marine Industry. Water Sports: 27 %

Orthopedics & Podiatry: 23 %

Footwear & Fashion accesories: 22 %

Car Wash: 15 %

Animal Flooring: 8 %

Sports & Leisure: 3 %

Others: 2 %

Karey Foam Solutions manufacturing capabilities

key facts. machine park

Staff with around 105 employees

Depending the section currently working from 2 to 3 shifts x 226 workable days

3 EVA mixing lines. 5.500 tones EVA mixtures per year

1 RUBBER mixing line

11 EVA presses with room for a total of 57 mould production

9 splitting machines

7 sanding machines

4 different sheet squaring techniques (horizontal saw cutting, disc knife cutting, guillotine cutting, water jet cutting)

1 precision automatic die-cutting machine

2 CNC cutting/routing machines (SeaDek products)

1 brushing machine (SeaDek products)

1 manual PSA lamination machine

 Planet Converters manufacturing capabilities

key facts. machine park

Satff with around 15 employees

Depending the section currently working
from 1 to 2 shifts x 226 workable days

5 precision clamshell die-cutting machines

2 manual die-cutting press

1 splitting machine

2 heat lamination/embossing machines

1 embossing machine

1 brushing machine (SeaDek products)

2 CNC cutting machines

3 CNC cutting/routing machines

1 manual PSA lamination machine

1 galvo laser engraving machine

1 digital UV printing machine (big format)

2 screen printing press & screen frame equipment

1 gluing station including drying tunnel and press

Product oriented transition:
New industries. Brands

From 2018 until today Karey Foam Solutions is focused on its transition from foam materials and semi-finished to finished product manufacturing. 

For a more professional approach within the marine industry, we create the division Ocevan (SeaDek CF for Spain & Portugal) with in house design, sales and manufacturing team. 

We hire a brand manager for our brand Equilibrium (yoga/fitness mats and accessories) to take care of Equilibrium social media communication campaigns, improve brand positioning B2C and contribute with new products design. 

All in total we start getting prepared in our organization to approach and follow our new product sales strategy.

SPORTS & LEISURE INDUSTRY KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

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MARINE INDUSTRY/WATER SPORTS
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

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Ocevan means the endeavour and enthusiasm from KFS to contribute with SeaDek introduction in Europe.

New resources are placed to boost Equilibrium brand recognition B2C.

Business strategy 2022-2024

Contribution for SeaDek
growth in EU and expansion
of our brand Equilibrium and OEM production for yoga/fitness mats and accessories

Karey Foam Solutions has already established its 2022-2024 strategic plan in which we are focusing in the development of our most dynamic industries; Marine/Water Sports and Sports & Leisure.

We are forecasting a potential growth of 5-7 million € for these industries in the next 3 to 5 years.

Marine Industry
/water sports

  • Sheets supply for Hyperform Inc (USA).

  • Continuous growth on TAHE OUTDOORS/ Former BIC Sports traction pads (SUP, WIND SURF, SURF and Kayaks for their complete line of boards as well as other OEM brands (HOBIE KAYAK and RADINN).

  • We are planning new CI’s trainings in order to continue the CI’s network expansion in Spain & Portugal.

  • It is essential to be authorized to cooperate in SeaDek expansion through Europe in terms of OEM’s, CF’s and CI’s networking. We are fully ready and capable to start, and we have a detailed plan and key contacts to be approached.

Sports & Leisure Industry

  • Development and internationalization
    for Equilibrium brand. Gain more OEM’s key accounts in yoga, fitness and fashion/active wear brands.

  • Product innovation: New mat collections and accessories development as yoga blocks and bricks.

  • R&D+i: Developments of more sustainable materials for implementation on new ECO products. Development of new engineered blends and material combinations to improve grip/adherence and cushioning
    on our mat range.

We’re Premium Foam Makers.

Looking forward for your feedback

Ignacio Gutiérrez

CEO

Juan Campos

Sales & Marketing Director