Self-adhesive products and system solutions
tesa SE is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of self-adhesive products and system solutions for industry, craft businesses, and consumers. The company was formed as an independent stock corporation within the Beiersdorf Group in 2001. Before this, the tesa brand and its research, production, and sales activities were a division of Beiersdorf AG.
One of the best-known brands
tesa is one of the best-known brands in Germany, with 98 percent awareness. tesafilm® is probably the most familiar product developed by tesa and has firmly established itself among generations of consumers as a synonym for high-quality adhesive film. Its origins go back to an invention by Dr. Oscar Troplowitz, a pharmacist at the end of the 19th century, who was trying to develop an adhesive wound dressing. The product that Troplowitz created was not suitable for wound care – but it was very good for repairing bicycle inner tubes. As a result, Troplowitz launched it on the market in 1896 under the name Cito-Sportheftpflaster. It was the first technical adhesive tape worldwide and the basis for the development of the transparent tesafilm®, which was launched in 1936.
The product’s striking name – one of the most successful brand names in history – was coined in the first years of the twentieth century. Elsa Tesmer, a clerk who was head of Beiersdorf’s secretarial office in Hamburg from 1903 to 1908, was given the task of coming up with catchy ideas and invented the word “tesa” using the first syllable of her last name (Te-) and the last syllable of her first name (-sa).
From adhesive film manufacturer to leading systems provider
Although tesafilm® and numerous other practical consumer products (more than 300 in total) are still sold today in their millions, tesa’s focus has shifted over the years to developing, manufacturing, and distributing self-adhesive system solutions – many of them highly specialized – for industrial enterprises and craft businesses. Today, this sector contributes around three-quarters of tesa SE’s sales.
tesa’s solutions play a crucial role in a very wide variety of sectors. Its products range from special adhesive tapes for the printing and paper industries, through highly transparent, extremely thin foils (ten times finer than a hair) for the electronics sector, down to the automotive industry. This is an area in which many tesa products are used – up to 50 may find their way into modern cars. Cell phones from a large number of successful global manufacturers use more than 40 different tesa applications – and not just to secure electronic components and design elements. Special tapes with unique properties improve light and thermal management in mobile devices, for example, or absorb the shock if they are dropped.
tesa’s new cleanroom unit in its Hamburg-Hausbruch facility was approved to manufacture pharmaceutical products in March 2011. The company focuses on developing and producing medical plasters and fast-dissolving oral films. In 2014, tesa built a “LabFactory” at its Langenfeld location, closing the last remaining service gap between small-scale product development in the lab and large-scale production. The pilot facility enables the company to offer its business partners in the pharmaceutical industry top-quality services, even during the development phase.
More than adhesive bonding
In other areas, too, tesa products are used for more than just bonding components. Rather, the focus is on systems that optimize customer production processes, are used for finishing goods, or create added value. Examples include laser-printed, non-removable security labels for the automotive industry or the tesa Priospot®, which helps protect counterfeiting and enables end-to-end tracing in the logistics chain.
High innovation rate
Innovations are the foundations of tesa’s success. In the consumer segment, the company focuses closely on its customers’ changing needs. tesa offers them professional solutions that are tailored to different applications and offer clear added value – such as its Powerstrips®, which can be removed without leaving any marks, tesamoll® for sealing doors and windows, and a wide range of packing, masking, woven, and special tapes for renovation and repairs.
tesa’s high innovation rate in the industrial and crafts business segment reflects its close cooperation with companies and equipment manufacturers in the individual sectors. tesa currently offers more than 7,000 products – the result of the ongoing research and development work in its own laboratories in Germany, the USA, and China.
Worldwide acceptance
tesa SE’s quality standards and global service network have led to it becoming one of the top international providers of self-adhesive system solutions. The company has around 3,900 employees around the world and sells products via 53 affiliates in more than 100 countries. It has eight production facilities in Europe (Germany, Italy), the Americas (USA, Brazil), and Asia (China and India).
