2011 Registration Document - Imerys

PRESENTATION OF THE GROUP
1 Innovation
The geographical location of the R&D centers is as follows:
Higher percentage of R&D spending given over
to new markets
2%
82%
16%
2009
8%
53%
39%
2010
19%
42%
39%
46 2011 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT IMERYS
2011
New markets Existing markets
New processes
Use of the stage gate method is standard practice and the R&D
pipeline is balanced between projects in the idea, laboratory, pilot
and industrialization stages.
❚ GREATER RESOURCES ALLOCATED TO INNOVATION
The rise in the number of ideas and opportunities led the Group
to allocate significantly more resources to R&D and Innovation,
increasing the 2012 budget by almost + 30% to €60 million.
Moreover, a growing percentage of research expenditure is for work
on innovations in new markets for the Group.
Given the analysis of innovations in the pipeline with market
introductions planned from 2012 to 2016, together with the growth
prospects of carbon for lithium-ion batteries, high-purity quartz and
proppant markets, the Group estimates that by 2016 it could achieve
additional sales up to €700 million.