Selenis, the only specialty copolyester producer manufacturing in Europe, has acquired the production assets of Polisan Hellas in Greece for installation in Portugal. Including these assets, Selenis will operate more than 200,000 metric tonnes (MT) of annual installed specialty copolyester capacity by 2028, across production sites in Portugal, Italy, Tunisia and the United States.
The acquisition adds continuous polymerisation to a manufacturing base built on flexibility. Continuous production serves the high-volume markets, where standardisation, consistency and cost per tonne matter. Batch production serves specialty and custom grades, where smaller volumes, fast changeovers and formulation depth are key. With both technologies now part of its manufacturing platform across four countries, Selenis can serve the full spectrum of the market, from high-volume applications to specialised grades, combining the scale and efficiency of continuous production with the flexibility of batch manufacturing.
“We believe Europe needs a strong specialty materials manufacturing base, and we are investing to build it,” said Duarte Matos Gil, CEO of Selenis. “When customers qualify our materials, they make a long-term commitment. Our responsibility is to invest ahead of their needs, to put more than one plant behind every grade and to give them a cost base that lets them compete. This acquisition puts industrial capacity behind that commitment, and further steps will follow.”
Supply resilience is central to the expansion. Selenis will work with customers to qualify selected grades at more than one manufacturing site, so a converter can hold the same specification from two plants, with no dependency on a single line or region and with the flexibility to move volume between sites as demand and logistics change. Qualification will follow the technical and approval requirements of each application. European converters are supplied from Europe and American converters from the United States, with shorter lead times and lower safety stocks than imported resin requires.
“Our ambition is to be the supplier customers choose for their next generation of products,” added Duarte Matos Gil. “That takes technical depth, dependable supply from more than one plant and the capacity to grow with them. We are building Selenis for that responsibility.”
The continuous assets also change the cost base. Continuous polymerisation runs at a lower conversion cost per tonne than batch, and Selenis will direct its standard grades for shrink sleeves, film and sheet onto that line. That competitiveness supports long-term supply agreements with customers who commit volume: multi-year, qualified and predictable on both sides.
The investment supports growth in four priority markets. Shrink sleeves, film and sheet, where the continuous line brings uniform high-volume grades at a competitive cost base, backed by the packaging know-how of the wider IMG Group. Healthcare, through Selcare®, where multi-site qualification and continuity of supply are conditions of doing business. 3D printing, where Mimesis™ product range supplies PETG and PCTG resin to filament producers serving industrial manufacturing, automotive, electronics, education and consumer markets, in applications from functional prototypes to end-use parts. And textile-to-textile recycling, where Texnascis™ works with chemical recycling partners to turn recovered monomers into new polyester; Selenis brings the polymerisation expertise and industrial scale these technologies need to reach commercial volume.
The Polisan Hellas assets will be installed in Portugal, in line with the capacity doubling already announced and underway. Selenis’ industrial footprint spans Portugal, Italy, the United States and Tunisia, and the Group is already assessing the next investments. “We are evaluating new investments in Germany in the bio-based field and in Tunisia, where we are exploring textile-to-textile opportunities through DMT technology. Each investment adds a capability to one manufacturing platform, and each is chosen for the markets where our customers see the strongest long-term growth,” said Eduardo Santos, Strategy & Integration Director at IMG Group.
Selenis’ expansion strategy is designed to provide long-term security, scale, and operational flexibility to customers requiring reliable global specialty copolyester supply across highly technical and demanding applications.
