Lambach, [October 10, 2025] – AGATEX Feinchemie GmbH is the winner of the prestigious Hermes Business Award 2025 in the International category. The award recognizes the outstanding performance of the family-owned company, which has stood for innovation, sustainability, and reliability since 1921.

AGATEX is now managed by the fourth generation, Georg Bauer, and the fifth generation, Nikolaus Bauer-Harnoncourt. With its business areas of refrigerants and specialty chemicals, as well as its sister company Pernauer Chemiewerke in the detergent sector, AGATEX is one of the internationally successful medium-sized companies based in Upper Austria.

“This award is a great recognition of what our employees achieve every day – together with our customers, who have placed their trust in us for decades. We are proud that our value orientation, innovative strength, and sustainable development are being highlighted in this way,” says Georg Bauer.

In recent years, AGATEX has invested heavily to further expand its position: With the new innovation center in Lambach, which will open in 2025, research and customer development will be more closely linked. At the same time, construction is starting on a state-of-the-art production facility in Thailand, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2026 and will serve the Asian market more efficiently.

The Hermes Business Award confirms AGATEX’s approach: preserving tradition, but consistently investing in the future and pursuing the goal of creating added value for customers, employees, and society. Prize confirms AGATEX’s approach: preserving tradition while consistently investing in the future and pursuing the goal of creating added value for customers, employees, and society.

About AGATEX
AGATEX Feinchemie GmbH is a family-owned company based in Lambach, Upper Austria. The company has been developing, producing, and distributing specialty chemicals and refrigerants since 1921.

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On October 10th, 2025, at exactly 11:11 a.m., AGATEX celebrated a historic milestone: the Groundbreaking Ceremony for its first international production site in Prachinburi, Thailand.

More than a century after Hanns Bauer laid the foundation of AGATEX in Lambach, Austria, another foundation was set — this time in Southeast Asia. The event marks the next chapter in our company’s journey of innovation, quality, and partnership.

The ceremony combined traditional Thai spirituality with Austrian family heritage, symbolizing both gratitude and forward-looking optimism. With blessings, incense, and the first pile driven into the ground, the ceremony embodied AGATEX’s philosophy: Building the future with respect for our roots.

Among the guests were Georg Bauer and Nikolaus Bauer-Harnoncourt (Owners of AGATEX Group), Andreas Köck (Managing Director AGATEX APAC), H.E. Dr. Wilhelm Donko (Austrian Ambassador to Thailand), Michael Friedl (Austrian Commercial Counsellor), and many of our valued partners and friends.

The new AGATEX Thailand production site will serve as a hub for specialty chemicals for the fiber, nonwovens, and paper industries in Asia. With its strategic location, the site will enable faster service, closer customer collaboration, and sustainable growth throughout the region.

“This step is both a symbol of our heritage and a commitment to the future,” said Nikolaus Bauer-Harnoncourt. “We are proud to continue what began over 100 years ago — now with an even broader horizon.”

“AGATEX has always stood for long-term relationships built on trust and reliability,” added Georg Bauer. “Our expansion to Thailand follows the same philosophy — growing together with our customers and partners.”

We sincerely thank everyone who has supported us on this journey so far.
This is only the beginning — but a beginning built on strong foundations.

Video of the Groundbreaking

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Der Beitrag AGATEX (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Groundbreaking Ceremony erschien zuerst auf AGATEX.

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We are proud and grateful:
AGATEX Feinchemie GmbH has been honored with the prestigious Austria’s Leading Companies (ALC) Award as the best medium-sized company in Upper Austria.
This award is a great honor for us – and it confirms that we are on the right track: sustainable innovation, long-term thinking, and genuine teamwork make all the difference.

Success built on two strong pillars

Today, AGATEX has two successful business areas:
fine chemicals, where we develop and produce specialty chemicals for fiber, nonwoven, paper, and wood-based material applications,
and refrigerants, where we operate as a full-service provider for the refrigeration industry—with a focus on quality, safety, and responsibility.

This combination of chemical expertise and technical application is what makes us special:
we combine tradition and innovation, industrial know-how and sustainability, regional roots and an international perspective.

A prize that belongs to many

This success is the result of the work of many people.
We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to our employees, who work passionately, courageously, and responsibly every day to develop new solutions—whether in the laboratory, in production, in sales, or in engineering.

They ensure that our customers in Europe and Asia can count on products and services that combine quality, safety, and sustainability.

Partnerships as a foundation

We would also like to thank our partners and customers who have accompanied, challenged, and inspired us for many years.
Together, we create innovations that solve real challenges—in refrigeration technology as well as in specialty chemicals.
This cooperation between equals is the foundation of our success.

Values that guide us

As a fifth-generation family-run business, we know that true strength is based on consistency.
Our values—responsibility, integrity, quality, and entrepreneurial courage—guide us in everything we do.

We invest in people, research, and sustainable technologies to remain a leader and a reliable partner in the future.

Looking ahead

For us, the ALC Award is not a goal, but an incentive.
With the establishment of our new production site in Thailand, the further development of our refrigerant services,
and new sustainable solutions in fine chemicals, we are continuing on our growth path.

Our goal remains clear:
to shape chemistry and refrigeration technology responsibly – for industry, the environment, and society.

Thank you

Thank you to everyone who has joined us on this journey—our team, our partners, our customers, and friends of the company.
This success belongs to all of you.

Der Beitrag AGATEX wins the ALC in Upper Austria erschien zuerst auf AGATEX.

Our focus at the event:
🔁 LAMBAFIL® R series – For the mechanical recycling of textiles
The textile circular economy is one of the major challenges of the coming years. With our LAMBAFIL® R series, we offer innovative chemical additives that have been specially developed for the requirements of mechanically recycled fibers. Among other things, the products improve:

• the fiber length after processing,
• reduce dust during processing,
• and optimize further processing in carding, combing, or spinning.

In this way, we are making an active contribution to the better integration of recycled materials into existing processes.

🧪 LAMBAFIL® Nonwoven Solutions – Tailor-made chemistry for nonwovens
Whether antistatic, hydrophilic, hydrophobic finishes or defoamers – with our LAMBAFIL® product range, we offer tailor-made solutions for the specific requirements of nonwoven production. Our focus is on process reliability, product performance, and sustainability.

🧬 New AGATEX Innovation Center – Development under real conditions
In order to provide our customers with even better support, we opened our new Innovation Center in 2025. There we can:

• conduct fiber-specific tests directly in-house,
• simulate application-specific tests on nonwovens,
• and develop new formulations much faster and in a more targeted manner.

This means shorter development times, better results, and even closer cooperation with our customers.

Visit us at the AGATEX tabletop at the Hofer Vliesstofftage 2025 in Hof.
We look forward to talking to all players along the nonwovens value chain – from manufacturers and machine builders to brands and converters.

📩 For further information, please contact us at: office@agatex.at

Der Beitrag AGATEX at the 38th Hofer Vliesstofftage: Innovation for a sustainable nonwovens future erschien zuerst auf AGATEX.