| Partnership agreement with SOL GROUP |
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Sol France has a net of stockists all over France that will also be ready to supply Chemtane 2 from now on to both, customers of cylinders and in bulk. The SOL Group, founded in 1927 in Monza, expanded rapidly since the 1960s, to become in the technical gases market the seventh group in Europe with an estimated market share in Italy of 16% . SOL is the unique Italian player of the business who along the last 10 years expanded its activities over the national boundaries in a harmonised way, over a large EU and Balkan area. Today SOL is a reality with production plants in Italy, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Serbia and reselling activities also in Switzerland. The Group’s production activities are carried out at 27 primary transformation plants (plants which produce gas from air, natural gases, calcium carbide and ammonium nitrate) and 35 secondary transformation plants (plants which produce pure and ultra pure mixtures and fill and stock cylinders and dewars). SOL has been one among the first gas companies in Europe that picked up the recent market opportunities . In the homecare market, especially, SOL managed to develop, earlier than many other competitors, the use of new technologies in the therapies and in the usage of oxygen in medicine; moreover SOL exploited the expansion opportunities in eastern Europe widening its markets and closing in more than seven years three joint-ventures and two acquisitions and incorporating four companies in 4 countries in Balkan area. The SOL Group accounts today 346 million euro revenues (2005 consolidated figures), more than 1500 employees and more than 40.000 customers. |
