Belgian-based weaving technology specialist Picanol organized a promotional event at Fair Ground and Conference Hall of Denizli Organized Industrial Zone to promote the Terrymax-i Rapier Terry Machine. Following the speech delivered by Gürcan İmdat, Picanol Turkey General Manager, and the presentation of Derya Sargın, Regional Sales Manager at Picanol, on the technologies offered by Picanol terry machines during the event, visitors had the chance to closely examine Picanol Terrymax-i Rapier Terry Machine while it was working. During the event where a high number of visitors attended, leading terry and home textiles manufacturers of Denizli examined Terrymax-i Rapier Terry Machine and obtained furter information from the representatives.
Erwin Devloo, Marketing Communication Manager at Picanol, and Kurt Lambowski, CRT Manager, who were present at the event, make some special evaluations for Textile World Publishing Group after the event.
What is the most important advantages of Picanol’s recently introduced towel machine with Terrymax-i technology in Denizli?
Kurt Lamkowski: That is the main purpose of our marketing efforts in Denizli to introduce latest rapier machine for terry towel. Picanol uses airjet technology for Terry towel in countries such as China, Pakistan, India, and South America since many years. However, there has been a growing demand from the market where they prefer rapier. As you know, some companies disappeared from the market. Our customers forced us to develop a terry machine based on the latest generation of rapier machine such as optimax and optimax-i. As a result of this demand, we have launched rapier terry machine almost 2 years ago in the European market. We have reached important successes in these countries, and now we are ready to promote this machine also in probably the most important rapier market for terry, Denizli-region.
Rapier or Airjet technology is preferred in the global market or Turkish market?
Kurt Lamkowski: There is no big shift. So traditionally airjet technology is common in Far East countries like China, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Basically, Turkey remains mainly a rapier market, the Far East remains mainly in the airjet market. This is also related to these markets and how they are positioning themselves in the world. Far East prefers big volumes, easy fabrics and choose for airjet Turkish companies are supplying mainly to Europe and America so they need to be more flexible. That is the reason rapier technology is still the main technology in Turkey.
Do you think Turkish market could be a leader figure in weaving machines?
Kurt Lamkowski: From the yearly published ITMF-figures we can learn that Turkey has been a major importer of high-tech weaving machines during the last 5 years. And indeed, also Picanol experiences the Turkish market as one of the main investors and one of our top-3 countries.
What are the main advantages you offer to Turkish textile manufacturers through your machines?
Kurt Lamkowski: As I said, one of the most main drivers for Turkish producers is flexibility. They are coming in a position that they cannot compete to the Far East in terms of cheap materials and big volumes since you have higher energy costs and higher labour cost. So, you have to find markets where your flexibility is your advantage. I think that our machines are really designed for that market. Also, when we make a machine flexibility is one of the most important point, next to lowest operational cost and easiness of handling. In addition to that, quality standard of the machine is also important. Because if the machine does not have the perfect quality, you cannot produce the perfect fabric-quality. Another point is that we have a very big advantage in Turkey because of the service we are providing to customers. We are having the most advanced and professional team in Turkey to give daily service to customers.
What is the most strongest features of Picanol in the area of weaving technologies?
Kurt Lamkowski: I repeat again the flexibility of the machine and reliability is very important so if you look at the weaving machine, you will see a machine that has to work 24 per day and 7 days per week for 15 to 20 years without stopping. It is not like a car while you drive one or two hours because weaving machine has to work all the time. So, this means that it has to be so accurate, reliable and the machine has to be really in perfect condition. One of the biggest advantages of Picanol machine is that our production facilities to produce the machines are so accurate, so precise and tolerants are so minimal that we can guarantee this quality over life time. Picanol machines are reliable, precise, strong and it is also a flexible machine. All results in the lowest running cost per meter over the lifetime of the machine.
Could you tell me about your marketing activities as marketing is key for your products?
Erwin Devloo: One of the marketing activities is being presented in textile machinery shows or to have customer days like today in Denizli. Also we have launched our marketing campaign associated with the slogan ‘Lets Grow Together’ since we want to go together with other customers. If our customers are successful, Picanol will also be succesfull because the success of our customers is our future.
Where did you see picanol in the global market for the last couple of years?
Kurt Lamkowski: We are growing gradually while the global market has been fluctuating for the last five years. In fact, the global market has not been growing at the same rate as Picanol that means that our market share has been increasing steadily within that period.
How would you evaluate last year sales records for Picanol? What is your expectations from this year?
Kurt Lamkowski: We have published and announced figures from last year recently. Basically, it has been a great year for Picanol regarding sales figures, turnover, profit and the amount of machines produced and delivered to the market. In addition, we have been facing the same fantastic business in Turkey for the last five years. We estimate that our market share will remain consistent with last year.
What does R&D and Industrie 4.0 developments mean to you in your area?
Kurt Lamkowski: We are very much busy with this subject and not only since today. Because Picanol in the past was also qualified for world class manufacturing and we have a lot of things and improvements going on. The most important point for industrie 4.0 is digitalization of the factory; use it in a proper and an intelligent way. Industry 4.0 is also part of and it is definitely something important that we are aware of since all machines are integrated into Industry 4.0. Also our machines are already 4.0 if you look to the level of digitalization, capturing and processing data, use data in an smart intelligent way, make the machine more operator-friendly, taking care of sustainability (recycling scratch iron for the new machines for example),a constant drive and search to have the lowest energy consumption, etc..
What do Industrie 4.0 and smart factory solutions mean for textile manufacturers, your customers?
Kurt Lamkowski: Asper today, I see few of them that are quite advanced, so there is still a lot to do. People started to talk about it but not many of them really understand what it means, how do we have to cope with it or do we have to start with it. When they come and visit our factory they learn about how do we tackle this and they understand how to take the first steps.
What is your vision for the next ten years?
Kurt Lamkowski: As being a market leader, we want to consolidate and keep the same position which is also not sufficient because you should always be better. Picanol has to provide a total package to customer and remain always better than the competition. This means that in every action, in every decision that we take, in every development, we always have in mind what it will bring for the customer and it should be better than what is available in the market. Customers have also experienced this in terms of reliability, performance, services and so on, and we will continue to do that since this is always our reference point which we take into account for the future. Total package value proposal which we give to the customer must be the best possible.
