From the Sector

Coats Group plc, a world-leading Tier 2 supplier of critical components to the apparel and footwear industries, announced has completed its acquisition of OrthoLite, a global market leader in footwear materials and the number one brand in premium insoles.

The acquisition marks a major milestone in the company’s long-term growth plans and strengthens its existing footwear division through expansion into the attractive, high-growth premium insole segment. Both companies already have a similar customer base, a complementary global footprint and a commitment to industry-leading innovation and sustainability practices.

Coats first announced its intention to purchase OrthoLite, and its sustainable materials brand, Cirql, on July 16, 2025, for an initial enterprise value of $770 million. Following previous footwear acquisitions, this is the latest step in the Company’s ambition to shape the future of the global apparel and footwear supply chain through innovation, sustainability, and digital technologies that improve quality, efficiency and performance.

To better reflect its increased scale and expanded footwear capabilities, Coats will also move from a three-division organisational structure, previously Apparel, Footwear and Performance Materials, toward a simplified two division structure focused on Apparel and Footwear. Existing Performance Materials businesses will be folded into the two new divisions.

The divisions will be led by Pasquale Abruzzese, Footwear CEO and Group Chief Operating Officer, and Adrian Elliott, Apparel CEO and Group Chief Commercial Officer. Glenn Barrett will continue to lead the OrthoLite business. External reporting will transition to this structure for the financial year ending December 2026.

Teijin Carbon, in collaboration with A&P Technology, announced a joint innovation in advanced composite materials. IMS65 PAEK Bimax® biaxial fabric is a rate enabling solution using Teijin Carbon’s Tenax™ TPUD IMS65 PAEK product, a thermoplastic unidirectional (UD) tape. It is designed to meet growing demand for scalable, high-speed production of composites in aerospace, space, defense and other evolving markets.

Teijin’s Tenax™ TPUD IMS65 PAEK – a high-quality UD tape based on polyaryletherketone (PAEK) resin is slit into narrow widths and braided by A&P Technology into a 65” wide +/-45° fabric. The +/-45° braid architecture has minimal crimp- offering a high translation of tape properties while providing excellent drapability for complex geometries. With a fiber areal weight of just 184 gsm and 34 percent PAEK content, IMS65 PAEK Bimax® enables out of autoclave (OoA) processing and vacuum bag only (VBO) consolidation, significantly reducing manufacturing time while enhancing mechanical performance and impact resistance.

Features and benefits of IMS65 PAEK Bimax® fabric:

• High fiber volume and low crimp for superior mechanical performance
• Extreme drapability for deep-draw parts
• Reduced lay-up time per layer – 65” wide fabric enables quick laydown of biaxial reinforcement
• Native air evacuation pathways for optimal consolidation of thick components
• Room temperature preform placement with spot tacking to simplify production workflows

This innovative braided fabric meets or exceeds the properties of existing National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP)-qualified PAEK prepregs, offering a robust and scalable solution for next-generation composite structures. The combination of Teijin Carbon’s advanced thermoplastic UD tape technology and A&P Technology’s expertise in braided fabric manufacturing delivers a truly high-performance solution for modern composite applications.