High-Specialty Fabrics for Safe Pharmaceutical Production

Q: How do Sefar’s products support Mexico’s healthcare sector?

A: Sefar is a Swiss company with more than 190 years of history. Sefar’s core business is the production of high-specialty fabrics, which represents a significant share of our earnings. The pharmaceutical industry is an important segment for the company. We began operations in Mexico in 2007 and we are one of the few companies that offers products with FDA certifications. Such products are also designed following GMP certifications, which guarantees safe use for powders and medicines for human consumption. Sefar has very limited competition due to the market we target, the high-quality product we offer and the technical maintenance we provide.

Q: What are the main advantages SEFAR MEDIFAB and SEFAR MEDITEX provide to clients?

A: These divisions offer fabrics for specialized technical use that comply with FDA and GMP certifications. These allow us to manufacture all types of filters. SEFAR MEDIFAB is exclusively focused on the life sciences area but can also target for implants, blood filters and infusion sets. We have also FDA materials to produce filters for powders and medicines for human consumption.

Q: How is your multinational experience reflected in the portfolio of services you offer in Mexico?

A: At our headquarters in Switzerland, Sefar has a global market management team in charge of gathering all success cases around the world from our work with multinational pharmaceutical companies. This allows us to detect successes and replicate them in similar cases we face in different countries. This means that Sefar has the global support to offer the best solutions for our clients.

In Mexico, we have a specialist for the Mexican pharmaceutical industry who shares the experience in the country and the dynamics of this industry. The specialist will look to both Swiss knowledge and Mexican experience when creating tailored solutions that meet high-quality standards and share this valuable knowledge with the 10 sales people in México.

Q: How does Sefar help customers comply with safety requirements?

A: Sefar offers traceability on all its products, from the reception of our raw materials coming from Switzerland. We even offer a quality certification, which is highly valuable for companies to prove their safe processes to COFEPRIS.

Our engineering and design department detects when we need to adapt our solutions to improve our client’s performance. Each week, we analyze if there is any specific case where the team has spotted an area of opportunity to deliver a fast, innovative solution.

Q: How does Sefar position its products in the Mexican market?

A: Sefar products talks for us, we also participate in congresses and events like Expofarma where we can showcase our works and newest services. Our field work is one of our strengths; we have 10 sales people around the country, all of them with a high technical capacity to demonstrate Sefar’s expertise through our products. We mainly work with the private sector in Mexico.

Q: How has COVID-19 impacted your business and demand for your products?

A: We had to reduce our work capacity by 70 percent at the beginning of the pandemic, which is when Sefar showed its strength as a provider. Despite the lower production capacity, we were able to meet our clients’ demands in the pharmaceutical, food and beverages industries and others. Sefar maintained its integrity and supported all collaborators through the pandemic and we all adapted to the new way of working. Whether it was at home or at the plant, the company made sure to respond to customers and collaborators.

Sefar produces precision fabrics, filter components, products ready for filtration or separation, innovative fabrics for screen printing and creative architectural fabrics for lighting, acoustic and design effects