A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG is planning major restructuring at its Mönchengladbach headquarters. After 127 years on Schwalmstrasse, the textile machinery engineering company will be leaving its old headquarters and moving to new premises in the Schlafhorst Business Park at the end of May.

The leading textile finishing machinery manufacturer has rented 2200 square metres of office premises and a production area of around 3700 square metres in the business park.

“Of course there’s a certain sadness at leaving after so many years at the familiar location, but the business park offers us an enormous opportunity to make better use of the new space available and the improved infrastructure,” explains Monforts Vice President, Klaus A. Heinrichs.”

“At the present time the company’s departments are decentrally scattered over the whole company site. We need to become more centralised and closer to other departments within the company. Similarly, the textile machine engineering company no longer has any points of contact with the other Monforts companies also located on the Schwalmstrasse, even though the ‘textilers’ have remained as tenants at the site, following the company takeover by the Possehl Group in March 2006.”

Possehl is a strong owner that closed the 2010 financial year with the best operative result of its 163-year company history. The provisional net profit result before tax is around 81 million Euros, with the conglomerate’s profit increasing by almost 400% compared with the previous year. 

According to Monforts, the substantial profit of the Possehl Textile Finishing Ranges business unit with the Monforts production facilities in Mönchengladbach, St. Stefan (Austria) and the joint venture with Fong’s in Shenzhen, China, contributed to the positive overall development of the group.

 “To date we have sold almost 1200 ranges from the joint venture production on the Chinese market alone,” explains the Monforts Vice President. The project planning of the JV ranges lies, however, fully in the hands of the Mönchengladbach team. The Textile Finishing Ranges business unit aims to further improve last year’s good result. “Following the after-effects of the economic crisis, the mood has continued to improve. We are seeing a growing demand, with the markets in Central and South America as well as in Asia showing an ongoing upswing,” says Heinrichs.

Monforts produces continuous dyeing ranges and ranges for finishing and coating of woven and knitted fabrics. Exports currently account for more than 90% of the company’s sales. Monforts has 148 employees at the Mönchengladbach site and almost 1000 employees worldwide.