Group - ACE Adhesives

Our Group

Ace Adhesives is part of the belgian owned Gluecom Group which has two sites in Belgium, three in the UK, one in France and one in Poland.

Each company operates as an autonomous business but has access to the adhesive products and technical facilities of the group. This enables us to run with the speed and flexibility of small companies with the purchasing power, technical facilities and adhesive manufacturing power of the multi-nationals.

Where are our commercial adhesives manufactured?

Hotmelts are manufactured at our french site, Labord, which is based a few miles south of Paris. Since acquiring Labord, in 2017, Gluecom has made massive investments in new adhesive production and packaging lines making this a thoroughly modern and efficient facility. Labord produces metallocene, PSA and EVA hotmelts which are sold across Europe under the Demcomelt trade name.

Simple regulatory compliance to benefit our clients

PVA & VAE adhesive dispersions are manufactured at the Merckx site in Belgium, Ace & Britannia Adhesives in the UK and Labord in France. Having local adhesive manufacturing sites enables us to supply domestic customers very quickly and gives us the ability to supply multi-national customers the same commercial adhesives, produced locally, across Europe. Having a strong presence in both the UK and EU is proving to be very beneficial post Brexit because we can transfer production to one of our local sites. This simplifies regulatory compliance, import/export documentation and removes the needs for tariffs.

Leading in sustainable commercial adhesives

Gluecom is Europe’s premier supplier of jelly glues and these are manufactured at our Lokeren site in Belgium. These traditional adhesives are enjoying a resurgance because of their sustainability. Gluecom has recently made a massive commitment to increase the amount of raw material it uses from recycled sources which will make these natural products some of the most sustainable adhesives available.

Our Brands

The Gluecom name was introduced in 2019 to give the separate companies within the group a corporate identity. It was important to let our larger customers know that we are an international multi-site company able to supply them across the whole of Europe.

Established in 1979 Gluecom rapidly became Europe’s premier manufacturer of jelly glues – exporting products all over the world. The quality of Demcopack’s products is recognised globally recent investments have increased capacity to keep up with for sustainable adhesives

Established in 1938, in the picturesque town of Bruges, Merckx has grown in to a thoroughly modern production facility. With high levels of automation Merckx is capable of producing huge volumes of PVA & VAE dispersions

The oldest company in the Gluecom group, Labord was established in 1924. In the early 2000s Labord suffered from a lack of funding and was rescued by Gluecom in 2017. Since then massive investment in new production and packaging lines has transformed the business. Gluecom’s international outlook has opened up new markets and Demcomelt is now being sold in almost every European country.

Located a few kilometres to the north-east of Warsaw Demcopack Polska was set up in 2017 to service the Polish bookbinding and packaging markets. The company has grown quickly and is now a key supplier to many of Poland’s largest binderies and luxury box manufacturers.

Our Adhesive Products

PVA & VAE dispersions are our largest product group by volume. These adhesives are sold for packaging, bookbinding and woodworking applications. We manufacture PVAs & VAEs for the UK market at two of our UK sites. Products for EU markets are manufactured in Belgium & France.

Our fastest growing product group is hotmelts. EVA, metallocene and PSA hotmelts are produced at Gluecom’s French site a few miles south of Paris. These products are used widely in the packaging and bookbinding sectors and we are particularly strong in food packaging and carton closing.

We are one of only a handful of companies that still manufactures jelly glue and starch based adhesives. Over the years these products have been replaced with synthetic products – but are making a strong come back because of their excellent sustainability and environmental credentials.