Ingenia’s first manufacturing site in Europe represents a significant step in the company’s international growth.
Ingenia Polymers, a global leader in polymer solutions, marked a major milestone in
its growth with the opening of its new facility in Obernburg, Germany on April 1, 2025.
The facility is Ingenia’s first manufacturing site in Europe and represents a significant
step in the company’s international growth. Founded in 1986 by John and Maria
Lefas, Ingenia Polymers began as a joint venture called Wedtech.
The Lefas family, Greek immigrants who moved to Canada in 1979, worked tirelessly to build a
company that would eventually become a leader in the polymer industry. John’s previous experience working with a major polyethylene producer in Sarnia, Canada laid the foundation for the company’s early success. In 1998, the Lefas family bought out its joint venture partners and the company was renamed Ingenia Polymers. Since then, Ingenia has expanded into a global organization, with eight
manufacturing sites worldwide.
The facility in Obernburg is strategically situated south-east of Frankfurt, close to both raw materials supply and major customers. The addition of this facility allows for the supply of Ingenia’s polyolefin additive masterbatch products including slip, antiblock, light stabilizers, non-PFAS PPAs, INCIRCLE® and INBIO® sustainable solutions.
Ingenia’s high quality premium TiO2 and engineered white masterbatches, as well as
a selection of premium dispersion black MBs will be available. In addition to producing masterbatches and proprietary compounds to support the polyolefin converter market, Ingenia also provides toll compounding services, research and development support, and its Superblend® polymer additive blends for polyolefin resin producers’ post-reactor needs.
The CEO of Ingenia Polymers, Thanassi Lefas, notes that expansion to Europe was a natural next step for the company. “Europe has been in our sights for several years now. Ingenia has built strong customer and supplier relationships in Europe over the last dozen years or so. Some of those relationships were pulled from existing business with customers in North America and the Middle East that have operations or headquarters in Europe. We have also experienced significant pull for our some of our flagship products – including our Superlink® cross-linkable rotomoulding compounds, our INCIRCLE® line of sustainable solutions for film producers, and our industry leading Non-PFAS polymer processing aids. We felt that now was the time to invest in Europe.”
The expansion in manufacturing assets in Germany is being complemented by sales managers in France, Germany and Turkey as well as customer and technical service functions. “Our customers expect us to bring the same level of service, technical support and quality that they are used to, to our German operations. We are on track to meet those expectations.”
