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Knitted Outerwear

Rise in turnover and profit for Mayer & Cie.

Commenting on performance for the past financial year, Rainer Mayer, Managing Partner of the world’s leading manufacturer of circular knitting machines commented that “2007 turned out to be a more successful financial year than anticipated”. Overall, Mayer & Cie. clocked up sales of 1690 circular knitting machines, marking a 5.2 % increase on the previous year. The circular knitting machine market is characterized first and foremost by the mechanic

5th February 2008

Knitting Industry
 |  Albstadt, Germany

Knitted Outerwear, Intimate Apparel, Sports/​Activewear

 

Commenting on performance for the past financial year, Rainer Mayer, Managing Partner of the world’s leading manufacturer of circular knitting machines commented that “2007 turned out to be a more successful financial year than anticipated”.

Overall, Mayer & Cie. clocked up sales of 1690 circular knitting machines, marking a 5.2 % increase on the previous year. The circular knitting machine market is characterized first and foremost by the mechanical machine sector which in turn is dominated by the single jersey market. Demand for electronic machines is limited to niche fashion segments and to suppliers in other specialist fields of the textile industry. Outside of Europe, the strong Euro exchange rate against the dollar posed an additional challenge facing all European manufacturers.

The company’s BASICLine machine series had a significant role to play in the company’s overall success in 2007. Unveiled for the first time four years ago, BASICLine has since evolved both in the single and the double jersey market to become a successful segment of the Mayer & Cie. product portfolio. This machine series has succeeded in significantly extending the potential customer base for high-quality premier class machines.

Still highly successful among single jersey machines is the Relanit machine series with its decisive performance and reliability benefits, due in particular to its gentle yarn processing action. Acknowledged as the world’s most productive single jersey machine series, Relanit proved a best-seller once again in 2007 with 520 units sold.

Mayer & Cie. continues to attach extremely high importance both to the development of new technologies and the on-going optimization of existing ones. Customer demands for maximum flexibility and productivity coupled with stringent expectations in terms of fabric quality can only be successfully addressed by manufacturers willing to back their development ambitions with hard investment. The Mayer & Cie. General Management considers this investment a major contribution towards ensuring a secure future for this medium-sized enterprise, which has now successfully entered into its fourth generation of family ownership and management.

The new features on show at the ITMA 2007 in Munich were an expression of the company’s highly innovative approach and development commitment, and the year 2008 also promises to bring a raft of new developments to further underpin Mayer’s leading technological position in world markets.

The Mayer family is fully committed to maintaining Germany as its producing location and Albstadt in Baden-Württemberg as its company headquarters. “High Quality, made by Mayer & Cie.” is more in demand than ever in the international arena. It is only by concentrating the comprehensive fund of expertise and flexibility on hand in the Albstadt location that this ambitious quality aspiration can be implemented. The fact that only a highly productive and flexible production outfit can secure an international competitive edge applies at Mayer & Cie. not only to the company’s own production, but also to the circular knitting machines it supplies to its customers.

In its core business sector of circular knitting machines, the company currently employs a workforce of 510. The threatened shortage of skilled employees in Germany has traditionally been met in Albstadt with heavy investment in the company’s own training and instruction program for the up-and-coming generation. There are currently 42 young candidates undergoing training in Albstadt alone.

The Mayer Group, which alongside subsidiaries and service centres in the field of circular knitting machines also successfully runs companies in other sectors of industry, achieved an overall turnover of 235 million Euro in 2007, generated by a workforce totalling 1310.

The company is anticipating a continuation of its successful progress throughout every sector of the group in 2008. However, the current turbulence rocking the financial markets, the threat of recession in the USA and the strength of the Euro are likely to bring about delays, particularly in larger-scale circular knitting machine projects, which will require the company to respond with the utmost flexibility.

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