Athletics on synthetic tracks, football on synthetic turf: what now seems perfectly natural was still a rarity back in 1969. That was the year the first chapter in the story of Polytan, today one of the world's leading manufacturers of sports surfaces for outdoor use, was written. As well as developing, manufacturing and fitting its own sports surfaces, the spectrum of services also includes line markings, repairs, cleaning and maintenance. Polytan is a member of Sport Group Holding, which also has its headquarters in Burgheim. The group now comprises 20 companies from nine different countries and has a total workforce of around 1,900.
While it all began with synthetic surfaces 50 years ago, the product range now includes high-speed running tracks, all-weather pitches, tennis and handball courts, soft-impact surfaces as well as synthetic turf systems for football, hockey, rugby and multipurpose pitches. All products meet current national and international standards and are duly certified by international sports federations such as FIFA, FIH, World Rugby and IAAF.
The worldwide success of Polytan sports surfaces is based on the design of the system: all components, such as the elastic layer, the infill crumb, the surface coating and the “synthetic turf carpet”, are designed differently and combined to meet the requirements.
This allows Polytan to deliver a synthetic turf system comprising an elastic layer, shorter synthetic turf filaments that need less in the way of infill crumb and offer better playing characteristics, and synthetic granulate as infill that consists to as much as 70 per cent of natural materials such as chalk and hemp.
Also with a view to improving sustainability, the company has developed a synthetic turf for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo that consists in part of renewable raw materials. This sports surface was developed in cooperation with Braskem, the world market leader in bioplastics, and is one of the first three products in the new Green Technology range from Polytan.
