Stahl inaugurates Customer Center of Excellence in León, Mexico

Company is reinforcing its commitment to regional innovation and sustainability

Waalwijk, the Netherlands, 30 June 2025 – Stahl, the world leader in speciality coatings for flexible materials, is celebrating the relocation and opening of its enhanced Center of Excellence for Leather Finishing and Performance Coatings in León, Mexico. The new facility houses state-of-the-art offices, application laboratories and testing capabilities, reflecting Stahl’s commitment to delivering advanced, lower-impact products closer to customers across Latin America.

This strategic investment follows a series of recent expansions, including the doubling of capacity in China, a new production facility in Ranipet, India, a Center of Excellence in Apex, USA, a new laboratory in Japan and a new PUD facility in Singapore. With a significantly larger footprint than the previous León facility, the upgraded center offers a more complete customer experience, from multi-substrate design support and application development to testing and training.

“Mexico is an important  market for Stahl, with a strong base of automotive, fashion and footwear customers,” said Maarten Heijbroek, CEO of Stahl. “By investing in this enhanced facility, we are staying close to where our customers are and giving them access to the very best technologies, people and expertise. This is a clear example of how we are growing with purpose, to better serve our partners today and tomorrow.”

The León site is part of Stahl’s global network of more than 30 application labs, 10 Center of Excellence and 15 manufacturing facilities. It supports the development of high-performance coatings and finishes for industries including footwear, apparel, automotive and home interiors.

Saul Rios, Managing Director of Stahl LATAM, added: “This new regional capability strenghtens our customer intimate business model. Here we can directly collaborate with our customers and brands, speed up our customer’s innovations and deliver according to regional needs. Our focus remains on co-creating products that touch lives, while always contributing to a better world.”

Guests at the inauguration joined a guided tour of the new facility’s main stations, including showrooms for Shoe & Leather Goods, Automotive interior and Performance Coatings, the Leather Finishing laboratory, a dedicated testing lab and the on-site Stahl Campus® classroom. The event concluded with a networking reception hosted in the new labs.

Stahl – Touching lives, for a better world
Stahl is the world leader in speciality coatings for flexible materials. With three core business lines – Performance Coatings, Leather Finishing and Packaging Coatings – we create innovative coatings that are protecting a wide range of consumer products used in countless industries, enhancing the consumer experience. From footwear and apparel to luxury goods, automotive, packaging and home furnishings.  

People touch Stahl products every day. And when they touch our products, we touch their lives. This is the perceivable impact we have on the consumer experience, which underpins our purpose: Touching lives, for a better world. Stahl’s purpose is reflected in our strong commitment to sustainability, including our Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)-aligned emission-reduction targets.

Headquartered in Waalwijk, the Netherlands, Stahl operates a global network of 15 manufacturing sites and more than 30 strategically located application laboratories, supported by sales offices in 22 countries.