For German circular knitting machine builder Mayer&Cie., business has pretty much gone to plan over the past few years. The Albstadt headquartered company sold 860 machines in 2011, 1030 in 2012 and this year it expects to sell in excess of 1200 machines – steady growth which is impressive during a period of economic downturn – which also secures jobs in its Swabian Alb home town where today 285 people are employed, 35 more than 2 years ago.   

Mayer&Cie. continues to produce circular knitting machines in Albstadt for the textiles industry in countries such as China, Turkey, India and other Asian and American markets, even though knitting on a large scale in its homeland is largely a thing of the past.

“At the beginning of the 70s we had 300 customers in and around Albstadt and an inland share of sales of 30 percent, “recalls Managing Partner, Rainer Mayer. Nowadays only niche suppliers or knitters with the highest quality requirements work with Mayer machines in the area – like the lingerie manufacturer Mey located in the neighbouring town Albstadt-Lautlingen.

Accordingly Mayer&Cie. machines are now almost exclusively sold to foreign countries and in increasing numbers - sales have gone up by 20% in the last two years to an impressive 70 million Euros.

“Today’s hi-tech machine fulfils almost all desires - it knits for example fabrics for shirts and functional underwear, insoles for sports shoes, seat covers for cars, finest wire mats for front shields or coatings for medical fabrics. It even knits mattresses with gold threads for Russian billionaires,” says Rainer Mayer.

The technical know-how from Mayer&Cie is in the high-precision knitting head of the machine - its diameter and the number of needles per inch determine the width of the fabric and its appearance.

As Mayer says: “Even the quickest hand knitter does not stand a chance here - 19 million stitches can be knitted per minute on a Mayer&Cie hi-tech circular knitting machine. In general such a machine runs for 24 hours a day so that it pays off - it produces fabric for 5000 T-shirts in this time.”

The Swabian family-owned enterprise does not only have to be innovative but it also has to be flexible:

“Most of our customers place their orders on short notice” Mayer explains. “Mostly they need to expand their capacities. It is above all in China where many commission knitters are located. When they receive an additional order they want to have the machine if possible tomorrow, but not the best and not the most expensive one.“

The Swabian machine manufacturer has responded to this market situation. The knitting head and the hi-tech machines are built in Albstadt but more budget-priced circular knitting machines are manufactured in the Czech Republic and assembled in China.

“With our budget-priced machines we want to conquer the Asian market. And to prevail with tested and proven quality over our Chinese and Taiwanese competitors,” states Mayer.

“The foreign knitters focus more and more on quality as well. Eventually, so the calculations of Mayer&Cie., the customers will then buy the more complex and more efficient machines from Albstadt. After all, in Asia the labour and energy costs rise as well.”

Further reading

High Productive Interlock machine selling well in India and Turkey

Dual gauge possibility with Mayer&Cie. knitwear machine

Further information

Contact: Wolfgang Mueller

Mayer&Cie GmbH & Co. KG

Emil-Mayer-Str. 10 - D-72461 Albstadt, Germany

Email: [email protected]

www.mayercie.com