History

Alfredo da Silva, shareholder of Companhia Aliança Fabril (CEF), promotes the merger of this company with CUF and moves towards the production of fertilizers on a large scale. Also on this date, Fábrica Sol, located on Avenida 24 de Julho, in Lisbon, becomes part of the CUF heritage.

Alfredo da Silva chooses Barreiro to follow the strong pace of expansion of the CUF. On September 19, 1908, the first factory opened in the small fishing village of Lavradio and the production of acids began, transforming olive pomace oil for the manufacture of soaps. The factories employ around 100 workers. Also in 1908, construction began on the Bairro Operário.

In the thirties, CUF had factories in Lisbon, Barreiro, Alferrarede, Soure, Canas de Senhorim and Mirandela and employed 16,000 people. The company motto, launched by Alfredo da Silva, was: “What the country doesn't have... the CUF creates”.

This motto was confirmed by the evolution of the CUF, which added sectors to its activities. After starting work at the industrial complex in Barreiro, the first sulfuric acid and superphosphate plant for the production of fertilizers comes into operation. The growth cycle takes place in five major production segments:

Organic chemistry: in the refining of oils, olive oil, soaps, flours and feed;

Inorganic chemistry: in the manufacture of acids;

Metallurgical: with copper, lead, gold and silver and treatment of pyrite ash;

Metalworking: with iron and bronze workshops and special steel manufacturing for the sulfuric acid industry;

Textile: first with fertilizer packages and then extended to the production of various fabrics.

In the 70's, the CUF reached its peak. With more than one hundred companies, more than a thousand different products, 110 thousand employees, representing a total of 5% of the national Gross Domestic Product, CUF is the largest economic group in the history of Portugal.

In 1975, the largest private business group in Portugal (CUF) was nationalized and disbanded. Only in 1997, already a member of the José de Mello Group, would it use the name CUF again.

At the end of the 70s, the holding company “José de Mello” was created, with some of the former owners of CUF as shareholders. The group's reentry into the chemical sector comes with the purchase of Uniteca, a chlor-alkali production industry.

The José de Mello Group acquires control of Quimigal, carries out a profound restructuring of this chemical industrial group and re-adopts the name CUF.

In 2006, the CUF Group went ahead with a business restructuring process with the objective of focusing on its core business, chemicals and fertilizers. It also takes the opportunity to refresh and update your corporate image.

In 2008, CUF sold the fertilizer business and concentrated all its resources on the chemical industry, focusing on the strategic objective of becoming one of the largest chemical groups in the Iberian Peninsula. In the same year, CUF actively participated in an extensive program to celebrate the CUF Centenary in Barreiro, including the production of a documentary, the restoration of old films, the publication of stamps and books, competitions, exhibitions and an international conference.

On July 8, 2009, the CUF publicly presented the completion of the project to expand the Estarreja Chemical Complex, carried out as part of a Project of National Interest (PIN) — a project that is an important milestone for the national economy and for the development of the region. CUF invests 125 million euros in this project and doubles its aniline production capacity to 200,000 tons per year, of which 60% will be consumed by its business partner, DOW. The completion of this expansion positions CUF as one of the first five companies in the chemical sector to operate in the Iberian Peninsula and the José de Mello group as one of the largest in Europe, with its own technology.

In May 2018, CUF changed its corporate identity, taking on a new brand called Bondalti. It was the culmination of a process of strategic repositioning of the business, which entered a phase of more growth, more ambition, more innovation and more internationalization. The strategic repositioning of the business reinforced its status as the leading non-integrated European producer of aniline and nitrobenzene and also resulted in the acquisition of a manufacturing unit in the Spanish region of Cantabria, which created the conditions for an Iberian leadership position in the chlorine market. The new Bondalti brand highlights an international phonetic of Iberian origin and allows a clear link between the word “Bond”, which means “connection” in English, and “Alti”, which originates in Latin and refers to elevation, ambition and leadership.

In November 2019, Bondalti began operations at its new manufacturing unit in Torrelavega, in the Cantabrian region of northern Spain. This plant represents a total investment of 60 million euros and positions Bondalti as the main producer in the chlor-alkali segment in the Iberian Peninsula. With an installed capacity of 68,000 tons/year, this unit focuses on the production of chlorine, caustic soda, hydrogen, hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite, responding to market demand for the production of polyurethanes and PVC, water treatment and purification, production of textiles, paper pulp, aluminum, cleaning products and applications in the vast majority of manufactured products.

In 2020, Bondalti entered the water treatment and recycling sector, through the acquisition of a majority stake in Enkrott, a leading company in Portugal. The inclusion of this new business area was a natural step considering the experience gained in the water cycle through the production of chlorine, essential to ensure the quality of water for human consumption and other purposes. At the same time, it reinforced the company's significant contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

In the same year, Bondalti established a third path of growth - new businesses in the context of the energy transition, focused on the development of green energies, that is, obtained from renewable sources. Both lithium and hydrogen are obtained through processes similar to the production of chlor-alkali, the company's core business and where the company has extensive experience. This new area has become a fundamental pillar for achieving the company's decarbonization objectives, namely carbon neutrality by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.

In 2021, Bondalti significantly strengthens its presence in Spain and, specifically, in the water treatment sector, with the acquisition of 100% of the capital of the Águas Alfaro group (with the commercial name AEMA), one of the main Spanish operators, with extensive experience in the municipal segment.

In February 2023, in a clear reaffirmation of its Iberian vocation, Bondalti inaugurated a delegation in Madrid, the seventh in Spanish territory, with the objective of establishing a bridge between the group's activities in the two countries, in its different business areas.

In April of the same year, Bondalti presented a new visual identity, a change that reflects an important stage in its strategic development, which involves the reinforcement of the internationalization of activities and the entry into new projects in the field of decarbonization. With this change, new designations were adopted for the three business areas in which it operates: Bondalti Chemistry (industrial chemicals); Bondalti Water (water treatment and recycling) and Bondalti Energy (green energy).