DiloGroup made a successful presentation at the Techtextil fair where it strengthened its relations with existing customers and searched the dialog with potential customers. The company attracted visitors to its booth by presenting its innovative production lines. Tekstil Dünyasi Edition Group editors visited the Dilo stand and had the chance to speak to the General Manager; Mr. Johann Philipp Dilo. Mr. Dilo gave a short flashback to the company’s history which dates back to 1902 when his grandfather started the production of textile machinery in Eberbach, Germany. These first machines were used mainly in the upholstery industry. After the Second World War the company experienced a period of steady growth and in the late 1950s a change of its production program to needle looms.
This was a time of numerous innovations and inventions for the flat needling sector but also for the specialty fields of structured nonwovens like the DI-LOOP, DI-LOFT and DI-LOUR technology and for circular needling like the RONTEX technology. “These successful results enabled our company to grow continuously and made us experts in the field of needle looms”, stated Dilo. He started to work in the family company in 1980. This was a very interesting time with the opening of the former Eastern bloc and emerging Asian countries. “We experienced another booming period when we entered the market for complete production lines which finally resulted in the creation of DiloGroup with the companies DiloTemafa, DiloSpinnbau, DiloMachines and DiloSystems”, said Johann Philipp Dilo.
We Manufacture Not Only Customized Machines
Although the DiloGroup manufactures customized machines, its main business is standard universal machinery and production lines. “Customized machines are always a challenge we gladly accept”, Dilo states “but what most of our customers need is a production line made up of standard machines to meet their special needs. Therefore, careful and thorough engineering work when designing the line is very important.”
Johann Dilo, talking about the innovations his company offered to the nonwovens industry, emphasized that the R&D work in all parts of the needling process goes on including opening and blending, carding, cross-lapping and of course needling itself. Focus is laid on high web regularity resulting in raw material savings, high productivity by increasing machine availability and – last but not least – environmental factors as energy savings. Water consumption is not a topic when needling staple fibres as this process does not use any water for consolidating the web. Energy savings are an important topic in the industry worldwide in times of rising energy costs but he emphasizes that the needling process itself is not very energy consuming and therefore offers little potential for further savings.
You Have To Be Open To Innovation
In this context Mr. Dilo mentioned the Blue Competence initiative of the VDMA which is according to his opinion a good way to raise awareness of sustainability and of the efficient use of energy. As needling lines are consuming little energy, the processing of natural fibres is another important aspect of this initiative. Once again, needling lines meet this challenge and are perfectly suitable for the processing of natural fibres. “We have offered machines for the processing of natural fibres for decades”, Mr. Dilo said. Johann Dilo emphasized that continuity and success in this industry can only be reached by being open to innovation and by steady improvements in all stages of the production process. Another important issue is service. Fast response times and global service together with business partners is a key factor for success.
Revealing some information about the current sales figures, Johann Philipp Dilo said: “The business volume of DiloGroup was around 80 million Euros in 2012. In the first quarter of 2013 we achieved around 25 million Euros. We hope that activities will continue this way and result in a successful year.” He continued: “Our production lines are sold worldwide, the most important markets being Europe, North and Central America and, of course, Asia, mainly China. We have our own representations in Charlotte (North Carolina, USA), Moscow and Shanghai. To give credit to the active Turkish market, we have decided to open soon another representation in Istanbul.”
We Will Continue In Turkey With Our Own Office
Johann Philipp Dilo who announced the opening of a representation office in Istanbul soon revealed that Safa Aksay was engaged to run the operations of the company in Turkey. Mr. Aksay has been working in this industry for a very long time and is well known to the Turkish customers. This means the market will be served by a friend with great experience. “We have ended our operations with our agent company in the local market but that does not mean that we have ended our relations with them”, Mr. Dilo stated. According to Johann Philipp Dilo Turkey is an important textile country which will benefit greatly from its proximity to Europe. He considered Turkey as one of the leading countries in terms of economic strength in the near future. “Turkey speeds up its enterprises in nonwovens. I think that there will be serious investments in this field and we would like to participate”, Mr. Dilo said.
Balances Change in Nonwoven Production Globally
Johann Philipp Dilo reminded that the global nonwoven market realizes a growth of 5 – 10 % every year. In the field of needled staple fibre nonwovens this rate is about 6 – 7 %. The current economic crisis has not had a deep impact on this industry. “After the crisis period a period of rapid growth has started. Now we have surpassed the sales figures of the pre-crisis era. I hope that we will go on this way. Fair organizations and other activities show us the right way in this sense. We take part in important global fairs as Techtextil, Index in Geneva, ITMA and ITMA Asia, ITM and Hightex in Istanbul and IDEA. We also participate in local fairs and symposiums held for example in Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Moscow or Shanghai. Normally, we take part in more than 15 fairs and several symposiums every year. “
