Superba Textile Systems being one of the members of the French Textile Machinery Manufacturers having a globally important market meets the needs of the producers with its new generation machineries. Superba developing technologies in the field of dyeing processes and continuous carpet yarn heat setting offers the following machineries to the global market; carpet weaving, tuft carpet, rug (PP, PA, PET, PAN wool and mixtures), heat setting of tricot and knitting yarns, steaming and machinery production for high- bulk production and space-dyeing machineries enabling dyeing up to 8 colors.
Superba receives great interest especially from carpet manufacturers in the Turkish market. The company established close dialogues with visitors coming from Turkey and surrounding countries. Superba and its Turkish representative did not exhibited any machineries on it 130 square meters booth but highlighted artificial grass samples for landscaping and sports along with original spare parts. The company explained in full details its GTS and GreenTex machineries in Istanbul. The company’s new machine GTS help to texturize yarns for artificial grass and receives great interest from the flooring industry. Besides this machine, which helps to decrease the costs in KDK texturizing process, Greentex can operate 6-12 yarns at the same time automatically and continuously. GREENTEX uses KDK-Knit De Knit processes to texturize green yarns. In this production, which is extremely expensive and complex besides being a discontinuous process, yarns are processed one by one. The machine features to texturize PE, PP or PA yarns and a capacity to produce 1.5 tons.
We have interviewed Mr. Hubert Tretsch, the Head of Marketing of Superba Textile Systems. Tretsch indicating that the machineries manufactured by Superba are in the leading position in the Turkish market and pointed out that they had received great interest from the Turkish carpet industry during the show and informed that their expectations were fulfilled with the visitors coming from Middle East Region and added that they signed several new contracts.
We Are The Leader Supplier in Gaziantep
Hubert Tretsch reminded that Superba has a strong history of 50 years dedicated to the textile technologies and pointed that they are in a leading position in the field of heat setting solutions dedicated to to the Turkish carpet industry. Tretsch indicated that Gaziantep is the most important location for them and repeated that they are the leader supplier there. Hubert Tretsch underlined that they have not exhibited TVP3 machine at ITM exhibition as the Turkish customers already know this machine better than them.
Tretsch informed that they expect a growth in the heat setting of carpet yarn industry this year and continued his words; “We follow the stable growth of the Turkish carpet yarn industry in amazement. Of course, we are happy of this situation. We had already exhibited the flooring technologies at ITMA Barcelona in September 2011. Our new technology manufacturing artificial grass is receiving great interest. Artificial grass for football, hockey, tennis, golf and other sports field besides landscaping arrangements can be manufactured with this machine. This is a new field for Superba and we are face to face with a speedily growing market. The artificial grass industry has a growth rate of 10% in Europe and 20% in America.”
Hubert Tretsch informed that despite the growth in the artificial grass industry, their current main activities are in the field of traditional carpet and said that they are keen to introduce the new environmental-friendly machineries to the Turkish customers. Tretsch expressed that they had a good market in 2011 in terms of business volume. “There was a certainly marvelous market in 2011”, he said. Like all other machinery manufacturers we had experienced a decrease in2008 and 2009 with the crisis. In 2010 the business was very good. We sold more machines in 2010 and 2011 compared to the ones we could not sell in 2008 and 2009. We experienced a blast in our sales. We were expecting a decrease for 2011 but on the contrary the demand started to increase in the market. We have to give long delivery times in 2012 as our business agendas are already fully booked”, he said.
Greentex Appeals a New Industy
Tretsch informed that Greentex developed for the artificial grass production received a great interest in Japan but added that he did not know the reason and said that they have a similar feedback from Arabian markets like Dubai. Hubert Tretsch informed that the artificial grass eliminates the dependency to water and soil and thus it is preferred as it can be used both indoor and outdoor every time and under all circumstances it is green and is long lasting. Tretsch underlined that Superba is not a company to use its customer as a test field and thus they enter the market with proven machineries. Tretsch continued his words: “Our Greentex machine operates and manufactures fully in South American markets. We have very interesting customers there. Some of them were already in the business of artificial grass. With Greentex they have jumped into a new technological process in the production of artificial grass. They both caught high productivity and got stronger in the market. We introduced Greentex to the Turkish Market for the first time at ITM and we have no Greentex machine installed in the Turkish market yet. We are making negotiations for the first time for this machine with the Turkish customers.”
TVP3 Was Sold Mostly to Gaziantep
Hubert Tretsch pointing out that they are the leader in the carpet industry in the Turkish market especially with TVP3 defined TVP3 as their “global locomotive”. Tretsch indicated that Gaziantep is the top buyer of this machine and continued as follows: “We first introduced TVP3 to the market in 2008 and realized our first sale in 2009. The Turkish customers having purchased the TVP3 obtained more production and savings than the expected limits. This productivity, which also surprised us, is obtained with the working of only 2-3 staff. TVP3 is capable to perform on its own with less human force the job previously performed by 2-3 machines in the past,” he said. Hubert Tretsch underlining that the carpet production is more and more tied to fashion, compared to the past, and thus requires constantly innovation in technological hardware pointed out that TVP3 offers this opportunity to the carpet manufacturers. Tretsch repeated that among their Turkish customers are Vildan, Kahta, Merinos and all manufacturers in Gaziantep region.”
Hubert Tretsch explaining that Turkey and America are their main markets in the field of carpet expressed that Turkey highlights with its “rugs” while America is always a big carpet market. Hubert Tretsch also informed that besides Turkey and America; China, Brazil and India are their markets and that they expansions in these markets are still going on; “Indian market is tougher than the others. As mainly second hand and lower priced machines enter this market. There are so many Turkish clients ordering TVP3 for the Turkish market that we have sometimes problems to deliver on time these machines,” he said.
Hubert Tretsch indicated that the quality in the Turkish textile market is obviously seen in the recent years and added that European companies started to prefer the Turkish yarn. Tretsch underlined that Turkey is not only manufacturing carpet for Middle Asian counties but is also exporting yarn to Europe. Tretsch also argued that being in touch with the European market contributes to the high quality level.
Superba Will not Grow as A company!
Hubert Tretsch stated that Superba is the world leader in carpet heat setting but is a small company in terms of investments and indicated that quick growth and expansion in capacity does not always end with positive results. Tretsch; “The decrease in demands affects large scaled companies more than small scaled companies. This is always the risk. In that stage, it is important to act quickly to adjust the production in compliance with the market tendency. At that time, we do not have any plans to become a large scaled company. We have the potential and capacity to deliver on time to our customers. We wish to remain a medium scaled company with our own R&D studies and we will not become part of a big group. This is actually our strength,” he said.
Superba exporting more than 90% of its production to 75 different countries is headquartered in Mulhouse, France. The company having exhibited its first technologies dedicated for the carpet production in 1971 realized more than 50 TVP3 lines in 2011. The company performed 60% of its TVP3 line sales to Gaziantep.
