The French Textile Machinery Manufacturers are the sixth textile machinery exporter worldwide. They have a total annual consolidated turnover of 1 billion Euros. They are the sixth textile machinery exporter worldwide. They are particularly strong in long fibre spinning (wool, acrylic …), yarn twisting and control (including technical yarns), space-dyeing, heat setting for carpet yarns, carpet systems, dyeing and finishing, felts and belts for finishing processes, nonwovens, air conditioning of textile plants and recycling processes of textile materials. As the Textil Dünyası Publishing Group, we thank Evelyne Cholet, their association Secretary General, for the interview.
What kind of approach-method does UCMTF (French Textile Machinery Manufacturers Association) members work through in terms of quality and technological development?
Let me thank you for your question! Our companies are completely focused on innovation and quality. Not only the R & D departments but the whole companies, the top managements, the marketing & sales departments, the R and D departments of course. Innovation is in our DNA. Remember Joseph Marie Jacquard, the most well-known textile machinery inventor, he was French! Today, our companies are SME’s run by entrepreneurs. Innovation is now derived mainly from down-to-earth partnerships with our clients. Innovation comes both from new technologies and the market’s demands. We are proud of our strategy to offer customized solutions, and not only off the shelves machinery, to focus our R&D on our customers’ requirements, to offer cost effective, reliable, and environment friendly machines.
Let me give you a few examples of innovative machines designed to meet a customer request.
N. SCHLUMBERGER is the world leader in spinning lines for processing long staple fibres (in various blends whether natural or man-made). A special line dedicated to mohair fiber was specially designed for a specialty spinner in carding process. Also, N. Schlumberger collaborates with carpet producers for processing acrylic.
SUPERBA is a member of the VandeWiele family of companies, Superba and their sister companies offer complete lines to produce carpets. In Turkey, your own country, a new textured yarn style, required by fashion trends, was aimed by a major producer. The demand was developing for textured (frieze) yarns, but the yarns produced with the existing machines showed too high frieze effect, too randomly curved. A light, and especially even frieze effect was sought by the customer and the end-user. A prototype was developed with which the customer produced sample yarns and carpets which were tested both from a technical and a marketing points of views. Thanks to the positive feedbacks from the field, the machine was improved and the desired yarn effects were made feasible.
LAROCHE is a world leader in textile recycling and nonwoven machinery. A recycling and nonwoven eco-friendly solution was tailor made for NovaFibers (Grupo de Todos) in Guatemala. NovaFibers had organized a logistics in the US to collect second hand clothes, transport them to Guatemala to resell them but many of these clothes could not be sold for a second life even at very low prices and then had to be thrown to waste. The challenge was to find a sustainable alternative. NovaFibers and Laroche worked together, clothes were sent to Laroche demo room in Cours, recycled into fibers to produce nonwovens which were sent to Guatemala to check if were marketable. Then, Laroche designed a complete line for NovaFibers. Now, NovaFibers imports in Guatemala second hand clothes from the US, resell part of them, and the rest is recycled into regenerated fibers which become the new materials to produce airlay nonwovens for such applications as building insulation, car insulation, felt for bedding, furniture, carpet underfelt, etc.
DOLLFUS &MULLER a manufacturer of key original machinery spare parts supplies textile dryer belts and endless special felts to technical textile manufacturers. Three key belts and felts were recently developed in close partnerships with European textile machinery manufacturers. First an innovative non-marking and non-sticking dryer belt specially developed for thermo bonding ovens for the process of nonwovens. This mesh belt available up to 5.2 meters wide has no fiber sticking at the belt joint which avoids web degradation. Second, a special endless palmer felt for ultra-sensitive fabrics with a felted soft surface which is non-sticking polyester fabrics with weights as low as 90 grams / m² and which gives to the fabric a new handle. Third, a non-marking and non-sticking dryer belt for digital printed fabrics ideal for all ink types, including the reactive ones.
What kind of practices are French textile machinery manufacturers engaging with respect to Industrie 4.0 and global technologies?
The answer is not if industry 4.0 will become a reality in the textile industry but how fast. In fact, it is already a reality in some factories and it will expand much quicker than most people envision. In today’s global competition, the gap between the fast moving and the low moving competitors is widening at an incredible speed but great ideas are useless without the right execution. We, as technology partners, have to offer not only innovative (each year we introduce some improvements in our machines) but disruptive solutions. The internet of things is certainly the main way not only to improve the process of each machine but the whole line production process.
How would you evaluate the all of 2017 with regards to the global sales generated by the UCMTF Member textile machinery manufacturers?
We have not yet the final results for 2017 but we know already that it was a near record year. The unfortunate drawbacks, for our customers, are the delays to deliver the new orders; for some of our companies it is close to one year eventhough they have set up extra hours. Geographically there have been changes, for example the Chinese market, our most important market, is still contracting, but the US market is booming. In Turkey, after a short-lived slowdown in 2016, orders have picked up again. Business is clearly starting again in Iran. In India, some of our companies are doing extremely well but other think it is still a little slow. There are also changes in the type of products made with the machines. Sales of machines to produce traditional textiles (apparel) have slowed but sales of machines to produce technical textiles, carpeting or to recycle textiles have soared.
We are quite optimistic about 2018 as for most of our companies their order backlog is already nearly full for this year. This January, Domotex 2018, in Hannover, has been a successful expo for the companies involved in the carpet manufacturing industry. This is true for our Turkish customers but also for the American customers. Also for the Iranian ones whom after so many years with no investments and therefore with outdated and unreliable production processes are eager to invest again in new technologies.
What is the position of the Turkish market with respect to the French Textile Machinery Manufacturers?
Turkey has been for many years our second or third most important market. With our Turkish clients we share the same strategy: be reliable long-term solution partners for our customers. Both, we are not looking for short term profits but to make our companies stronger and stronger, to seize the markets opportunities and be able to absorb the difficult years. We are mainly SME’s, often family owned, leaders or co-leaders in their markets. This why we understand each other so well with our Turkish customers who are real entrepreneurs.
The stability of our teams allows our companies to go well beyond the purely technical and address the long-term objectives of our customers. As we are machinery and technology solution partners, our Turkish customers are very interested to work with us to implement innovative, “couture” solutions; they know that we deliver and erect the machines on time, give an excellent after sale service and deliver spare parts very efficiently.
Do you have planned roadshow activities for the 2018?
End of 2016, we organized the first Dalton carpet conference in Dalton( Georgia -USA) and invited Belgian, English and German companies to join us. It attracted more than 110 executives from the most important carpet manufacturing companies to examine innovative solutions for the flooring industry: from polymer and natural fibers to end products.This October 2017 with the Belgian, Spanish and Swedish associations, we organized the first European roadshow in Colombia. It took place in Bogota and Medellin, attracted more than 100 Colombian companies including many with which we had not done business yet. We are going to follow up on this success. For 2018, we have several events which are under consideration, but they are not finalized yet.
What kind of market-oriented activities or practices do you plan in Turkey for the year 2018?
Our association is very active to promote the French exhibitors in Istanbul. Next April 14-17 in Istanbul we will have one more opportunity to welcome our customers at the highest level. In Gaziantep, we have been the first association to organize a national pavilion; it was back in 1995, more than 20 years ago! Also in Gaziantep and in Izmir, we have regularly, about every 3 years, organized seminars to meet our Turkish customers and show them our latest developments.
Last but not least, because it is not visible for our customers, we have helped our members improve the efficiency of their logistics in Turkey, for example to help them be more proactive to fight counterfainted spare parts and set up a customer oriented, very effective, logistics to deliver the original spare parts the customers need.
I would like to introduce 2 more companies exhibiting in İstanbul. AESA Air Engineering which supplies complete textile air engineering systems in order to maintain the required temperature and humidity adapted to each type of fiber (cotton, rayon, polyester, blends, wool, acrylic). Scope of supply ranges from simple textile air conditioning stations to turnkey textile air engineering projects, including centralized dust collectors, baling press systems, chiller and refrigeration plants, ducting and piping. Air engineering is very important for our Turkish customers. PETIT which has a consequent and permanent storage capacity of spare parts with more than 20 000 references multi brand for fine count textile machines especially for ICBT and looms for Saurer-Diederichs.
