Distributor of Aramith Balls

Founded in 1923, Saluc started as a chemical industry specialised in tannery products, but converted after 1950 to billiards balls. Today, Saluc produces and distributes billiard balls under the registered trademark Aramith in more than 100 countries, and has a market share exceeding 85 % worldwide.

The company is also specialised in the production of industrial balls used in all kind of applications, as well as in 9 pin bowling balls and trackballs. The exportation represents 98% of its activity.

One of the major strengths of the company is its upstream integration : Saluc has its own chemical plant, to produce the Aramith resin which gives the exceptional characteristics to the finished products. This integration allows the price optimization and quality insurance.

05/2012 – The best products come together ! In 2012, IWAN SIMONIS, world leader in the manufacture of billiard cloth, and ARAMITH, world leader in the manufacture of ARAMITH billiard balls merged.

The union of these two complementary Belgian products – loved by amateur and professional billiards players the world over and sanctioned by the majority of the championships and tournament organizers worldwide – will help to reinforce the promotion on the international level of these two globally reputed and high-quality billiard products: IWAN SIMONIS cloth and ARAMITH balls.

In January 2016 Iwan Simonis S.A. and Saluc S.A. were delighted to announce that WSP Textiles Limited, England and its STRACHAN™ and PLAYNE™ brands has joined the Group. Iwan Simonis is the leading manufacturer of the SIMONIS™ premium quality worsted billiard cloth and Saluc S.A., home of the famous ARAMITH™ balls, is the global leader in the production of true phenolic billiard balls.

WSP Textiles is the leading manufacturer of premium quality billiard and tennis ball cloth. Based at Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, WSP has been making billiard and tennis ball cloth for over a hundred years. Its STRACHAN™ range of traditional snooker and English pool cloth is used at various high profile tournaments including the recent Dafabet Masters 2016 (World Snooker) and its PLAYNE™ tennis ball cloth range is the choice of the majority of leading manufacturers and brands in the tennis industry including the current Australian Open.

This new partnership with WSP enables a diversification of the Group activities by taking a leading position in the tennis ball cloth market. In billiard this combination of high quality iconic brands and products SIMONIS™, ARAMITH™ and STRACHAN™ makes our Group to be the partner of choice for cue sport federations, distributors, retailers and players and will create new opportunities to further develop the business.

THE KEY FACTOR: ARAMITH RESIN

Based on its chemical know-how in the manufacturing of special phenolic resins, Saluc detected a valid opportunity in the conversion to making billiard balls. “This choice had two reasons,” said Bossuyt. “Our special phenolic resin features excellent physical and chemical characteristics. In addition, the billiard market was in full expansion.” Commercialization of the first balls started in the sixties at a time when competition against three already well-established manufacturers was difficult. Through the continuous fine-tuning of quality and the increase of production levels, Saluc succeeded to take a major competitive lead. After Hyatt Ball, Raschig and Composition Billiard Balls all stuck with old technology finally ended their billiard ball production, Saluc became the only company worldwide producing phenolic resin billiard balls, exporting over 99% of its production to more than 100 countries. Contrary to polyester and other phenolic resins, the Aramith resin that Saluc uses has been specifically designed for the billiard application and is produced within the company in its own chemical plant. This unique technology leads to a material especially suitable, with unmatched characteristics such as its chip- and scratch-resistance. “The Aramith balls last up to five times longer than other balls made of polyester,” said Yves Bilquin, sales and marketing manager for North America and previously the R&D manager. “Their unique structure, more than one hundred times finer than mineral-filled polyester, gives the Aramith balls their specific reactivity and allows them to hold their high-gloss polish over time, resulting in minimal ball and table cloth wear.” “There is simply no comparison,” said Vito Leo, PhD in material science and solid state physics and associated professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, who performed independent tests on a specifically designed billiard table simulator. “When all kinds of competitor balls found on the market are tested, including DAP-based and other types, both the cloth and the balls are greatly damaged after sometimes—some even destroyed—whereas the Aramith billiard balls, along with the cloth used, show an exceptional shape even after extensive longevity tests.” On the top of that, high-end Aramith balls feature an extra-hard, dense, and translucent vitrification layer that gives the exceptional characteristics to the products. “These characteristics make the Aramith sets an easy sell for the retailers,” reported Bilquin. “We give trainings on dealers’ requests that allow the salespeople to explain why the Aramith resin is the natural choice and why upgrading to a higher-end Aramith set gives value to the player. That way, the retailer ensures its customers the highest satisfaction and the lowest yearly cost, thanks to the low table and cloth maintenance the Aramith billiard balls provide. Pool rooms, all massively using Aramith ball sets only, give more evidence that with Aramith balls one can satisfy the demanding player while still minimizing cloth and ball-operating costs.”