Cosentino explains its transversal Innovation policy and announces “CT Quarry” project

Madrid, 18th November 2024- Cosentino, global leader company in the production of sustainable surfaces for architecture and design, announced this morning its latest advances and milestones in terms of innovation and R&D. The company has established as a leading benchmark within its sector worldwide through the development of new disruptive materials, and applying the latest technology both in the efficiency of production processes and in digitalization of the value chain.

This strategic aim is supported by a relevant investment effort. In 2023 Cosentino invested 22 million euros in R&D&I projects and assets, raising this figure to more than 100 million accumulated in the last five years. A commitment that is also endorsed by an extensive industrial property portfolio that covers 30 patents families in force that protect several inventions in the countries where it operates, in addition to 88 different registered designs. An innovation that takes shape in the creation of materials that reach our daily lives in a multitude of home and public spaces applications.

At the press conference, held at Cosentino City Madrid, Álvaro de la Haza, Cosentino’s Executive VP, analyzed the current perspectives of the stone and engineered surfaces industry, and the global and macroeconomic framework. Likewise, he has framed both the commitment to innovation and “CT Quarry” project in Cosentino's three-year investment plans. Thus, he recalled that the 2024-2026 Investment Plan is currently being implemented, which amounts to a total of nearly 400 million euros.

According to De la Haza, “our innovation strategy revolves around two key cores, efficiency and sustainability, in order to continue leading an increasingly challenging global market due to the advance of Asian competition, the sustainability challenge and the costs of raw materials, maintaining at the same time our commitment to centralized production in our Industrial complex in Almeria”. “We are keep investing to provide our customers around the world advanced design products with increasingly sustainable and safe features, with the levels of quality and exclusivity that have always characterized to Cosentino”, De la Haza concluded.

In this sense, and linked to its commitment to circular economy and decarbonization, the company has introduced “Circular Technological Quarry” (CT ​​Quarry), a project that will mean “the biggest turning point in the sector globally in more than a decade” as Cosentino’s Innovation and Product VP, Valentín Tijeras, explained. With a total estimated investment of 90 million euros, “CT ​​Quarry” has been one of the 16 medium-scale projects - and the only one in Spain- selected in the latest call for European Commission Innovation Fund. The Innovation Fund is one of the world¡s largest financing programs for the implementation of innovative net-zero and low-carbon emissions technologies, being one of the key tools of the European Green Deal Plan.

“CT Quarry” aims to build a “first-of-its-kind” industrial-scale plant to produce innovative and sustainable raw materials for the EU construction, glass and ceramic materials sectors complying with three fundamental principles: low carbon, circularity and safety. The project facility will consume over 100,000 tons/year of industrial sludge from Cosentino production, avoiding its landfilling, and together with other materials will produce more than 247,000 tons/year of raw materials for which industrial applications are already clearly defined. This project integrates the use of renewable fuels and electric energy, while recovering process heat, and is expected to achieve an absolute GHG emissions reduction of over 1 million tons of CO₂ over ten years.

This project follows the path of more than four decades of constant product innovation that had its latest milestone in Hybriq+®, the technology patented by Cosentino that “has allowed us not only to completely modify the nature of Silestone®, but also to set the path of the global industry towards more sustainable engineered surfaces, with a greater presence of recycled raw materials, and low in silica”, as Tijeras has pointed out. Thanks to Hybriq+®, the company has been able to progressively reduce the presence of silica or quartz in its composition. Last year all Silestone® production was under the Q40 version, with a maximum of 40% silica in its composition. In parallel, Cosentino has been advancing and producing several collections and colors from the brand's portfolio in Q10, with only between 1% and 10% crystalline silica in its formulation.

Finally, recent examples have also been mentioned of how the company is also advancing in the integration of new technologies into its surfaces in smart home appliances. With its ultracompact porcelain surface, Dekton®, currently leads the sector of kitchen countertops with integrated or “invisible” induction hobs, with models developed together with companies such as Gaggenau or Novy. And just a few weeks ago, the company reached an agreement with Freepower in the US whereby both Silestone® and Dekton® surfaces can act as wireless chargers for different electronic devices.

Industry 4.0: Automation and Robotization

Another sphere in which the company is positioning itself as a global reference is in the Industry 4.0. With an Industrial Park near to 4 million square meters in which it bed 9 factories and a fully automated logistics warehouse, Cosentino has converted its complex in Cantoria (Almeria) into a real Smart Factory with more than 70,000 monitored variables, and 96 Robots or RPA's 100% R&D&I from Cosentino.

As explained Álvaro Sánchez-Apellaniz, Cosentino’s Chief Strategy & Data Officer, after the creation of a Datalake in which to centralize all the information generated by the organization (from supply of raw materials, production, management and customers), important advances are being made at the level of efficiency and decision making, turning Cosentino into a Data-Driven organization, through advanced analytical tools and Artificial Intelligence. Specifically, in the manufacturing side, the company is committed to the “Connected Factory” concept, which has meant the creation of a single platform to store, visualize and exploit IoT data, in addition to providing service to other auxiliary applications intended for production. This project began in 2018 and currently has more than 70,000 process variables.

Data Management and Artificial Intelligence

In a complementary way, the other great scope of the company's commitment to digitalization and data management it’s the efficiency and processes optimization linked to its commercial activity and the relationship with customers. This is reflected in the “Smart Connect” project, developed by the company's DBU (Digital Business Unit) and Business Technology areas. Through the Agile methodology in a SCRUM framework, Cosentino has in recent years developed digital platforms for five verticals of its business: Kitchen and Bath Stores, Stonemasons, Architects, Designers and End Consumers, through a customer-focused vision. Platforms such as We Professional, eCosentino or C.Top Design articulate what is called the “Cosentino Ecosystem”, a collective formed today by more than 300,000 professionals.

As Sánchez-Apellaniz commented, ”with this B2B and B2C digitalization strategy, we manage to strengthen communication and connection with our customer ecosystem, which also links and feeds back to our commercial network and with the Cosentino Centers & Citys, generating new business opportunities and be able to increase the company's sales”. The recent project carried out by Celonis, a world-leading firm in intelligence and process mining, has also been explained. In just seven weeks, teams from both companies developed an AI assistant for credit blocking management capable of analyzing blocked orders in a matter of seconds. This allows managers to process up to 5 times more orders per day without additional risks.