CIVITANOVA MARCHE, ITALY – ICA, a leading industrial group in Europe specializing in the manufacture and marketing of special coatings for wood, has established a new Italian Coatings division. The division is the result of the merger of Salchi Wood Coatings SpA, a company that was already 100 percent controlled by ICA SpA.

The incorporation capitalizes on the synergies between two companies that have played leading roles in the history of wood coatings, thereby improving the group's competitiveness. Aside from allowing the group to expand, the merger also bolsters collaboration between the two separate sales networks, reinforces the presence of products within international markets and enables the group to target new territories around the world, particularly in emerging countries.

The Italian Coatings division will be marketed with the new iCO brand, which represents the group's core business. iCO can boast long-standing partnerships with the leading manufacturers in the furniture-making districts of the Lombardy and Veneto regions of Italy. It offers a high level of specialization in products for interiors – specifically for industrial cycles with UV-cured coatings. The umbrella of ICA Group allows those products to be deployed alongside the entire range of wood coatings.