At Covia, innovation isn’t a department—it’s a mindset. For years, we’ve partnered with customers across industries to solve tough challenges using the unique properties of industrial minerals and our process know-how. From improving product performance to reducing environmental impact, our work has always centered on discovering better ways to serve our customers and their customers.
Now, with the opening of the Covia Innovation Center (CIC) in Concord, North Carolina, that commitment has a new home.
This state-of-the-art facility is a physical representation of Covia’s approach to innovation: to deliver value through smart, sustainable solutions. While innovation is not limited to a single team or facility, the CIC provides a centralized, purpose-built environment where our team and our customers can accelerate progress together.
A Legacy of Innovation, Evolved
Covia’s reputation as a leader in the industrial minerals space is built on the quality of the minerals we mine combined with our ability to leverage technology and our process capability, which enables us to develop the full potential of the raw materials. Central to this purpose is working hand in hand with our customers to identify and solve their challenges. We’ve long believed that enabling our customers’ successes requires deep technical knowledge, cross-functional collaboration and a relentless curiosity about what’s possible.
“We are not just a raw material supplier—we are a mineral solutions provider,” said Mike Marcely, Covia’s EVP, US/Canada and Business Development. “We grow together with our customers, and we take a customer-centric approach to innovation.”
That approach has long guided Covia’s investments in application labs, pilot facilities and analytical centers—from our Analytical Services Lab in Ottawa, Illinois, to our mineral processing lab in Santa Catarina, Mexico. The opening of the CIC represents the next step in expanding those capabilities. Rather than consolidating existing resources, the CIC enhances our ability to collaborate, test and solve problems alongside customers. It reflects Covia’s company-wide mindset: innovation isn’t confined to a single site—it’s embedded in everything we do, and the CIC brings even more tools and space to put that mindset into action.
A New Chapter: The Covia Innovation Center
Although we look forward to a formal grand opening later this year, our scientists and engineers are already utilizing the space to solve customer challenges, collaborate on new projects, advance mineral solutions and support process innovation.
The 20,000-square-foot facility includes 13,000 square feet dedicated to product development and 7,000 square feet of office and collaboration space. It’s home to specialized rooms for coatings development, mineral processing, polymer applications and more, plus configurable lab space for expanded capabilities as needs evolve.
The center also houses dedicated conference rooms, the Ideate and Innovate rooms, and a multi-purpose room, the Inspire room, which will foster opportunities for cross-disciplinary discussion, idea generation and hands-on teamwork.
“This is a customer hub,” Marcely explained. “It will be a basecamp for collaboration and a place to create value together with our customers.”
Purpose-Built to Solve Real-World Challenges
The CIC was designed not just to enable technical and process breakthroughs, but to ensure they have real business impact. That means aligning every project with customer needs, market demands and real-world performance goals.
“It’s not a technical push approach,” Marcely said. “We ask, ‘Does what we’re doing help our customers improve performance? Reduce costs? Enhance sustainability? Solve their customers’ challenges?’ That’s our focus.”
Rather than conducting theoretical research, the CIC focuses on applied science—processing and modifying minerals, simulating customer applications and refining formulations to meet specific performance criteria. One recent example involves surface-modified minerals that enhance scrub resistance in architectural coatings, helping paint manufacturers deliver easier-to-clean walls for end users.
Customer Collaboration at the Core
What makes the CIC unique isn’t just the tools—it’s the way they’re used. Covia’s approach to innovation is deeply collaborative, involving input from team members in sales, marketing, product management, engineering, operations and technology, as well as customers themselves.
“Innovation is a team sport,” Marcely said. “It goes beyond R&D. It includes how we serve customers, how we think about business models and how we bring different perspectives together.”
Field insights gathered by technical sales and service teams feed directly into the CIC’s project pipeline, ensuring that the customer voice is present at every stage of development. And because the CIC is conveniently located not far from Charlotte, NC, it’s easy for customers and internal teams to meet, brainstorm and work together in person.
Designed for Agility, Built for Growth
Modularity and flexibility were top priorities in the design of the CIC. Lab spaces can be quickly reconfigured to support new focus areas—from coatings and polymers to sports and recreation, or emerging markets.
“What we’re doing today is not necessarily what we’ll be doing tomorrow,” said Steven Schilling, Director of Technology and Application Development. “That’s why we built this space with an emphasis on flexibility so we can pivot easily.”
Airflow systems minimize cross-contamination between rooms. Utilities drop from the ceiling to enable fast reconfiguration. Benches in the lab are movable, and the space can be expanded or segmented as new opportunities arise.
The facility also features 30 open-office workstations, allowing the team to expand and evolve as new talent joins.
A Magnet for Talent—and Ideas
Covia chose Concord as the home of the CIC for strategic reasons. The region’s robust academic and research community, central location and strong quality of life make it ideal for attracting and retaining top talent.
“Without people, this is just an expensive building full of paperweights,” Schilling said. “Innovation is a people business. Having the right people here is critical.”
The center will also support Covia’s internship and workforce development efforts, offering hands-on experience to students and early-career scientists at a time when funding cuts are limiting opportunities in academic research.
“Part of our responsibility is to help train the next generation of scientists and engineers,” Marcely noted. “And this center gives us the ability to do that.”
Investing in a Sustainable Future
While many of the CIC’s projects are confidential, sustainability is a clear priority. “We want to help our customers achieve their sustainability targets—and their customers’ goals too,” said Marcely. “That’s a core reason why this center exists.”
Consider examples from Covia’s product portfolio:
Similarly, many of the innovations being developed at the CIC are designed to help customers meet their environmental, health and safety goals.
Looking Ahead
With a significant investment in construction, equipment and talent, the CIC represents more than a facility; it’s also a symbol of Covia’s future. It’s a space for turning customer insights into actionable solutions, for building stronger partnerships and for bringing new ideas to life faster.
As we prepare for the grand opening and a customer innovation day later this year, we’re already seeing the value this center brings to our customers and our teams. And we’re just getting started.
Ready to Collaborate?
Have a challenge you’d like to solve—or a new opportunity you’re exploring? Get in touch. We’re always ready to roll up our sleeves and see what’s possible, together.
