Leading circular knitting machine builder Mayer & Cie. Sat down with one of its long-standing representatives to talk about a long and fruitful association.

Fabrício Rampani’s path regularly takes him to Albstadt in Germany. He is one of two managing directors of the Brazilian Mayer & Cie. agency MBR. Fabricio has been working with the circular knitting machine manufacturer Mayer & Cie., for decades. Plus, there are many personal connexions, including with Area Sales Manager Horst Maier. 

M&C: Fabrício, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Can you briefly introduce yourself and your company?

FR: I’m Fabrício Rampani from the company MBR, the representative of Mayer & Cie. in Brazil. We are based in the city of Salto, which is in the south of Brazil, in the state of Sao Paulo. We started with MBR in 2017, yet our connection with Mayer & Cie. is much older as we were previously part of the Mayer group. As MBR, we are already heading towards our six-year anniversary.

My partner at MBR is Frank Bernhard. Our team consists of around ten colleagues. Two of them are technicians who take care of the Mayer & Cie. machines. Both have a great deal of experience: the electronics engineer has been with us for more than 20 years and the mechanic has been in our team for as long as MBR has existed, for around six years.

M&C: How long have you been in the textile industry?

FR: Hmm, let me think about that… I started in 1989, in 1992 I came to Mayer & Cie., that is Mayer Brazil, and since then I’ve been involved with circular knitting… yes, for quite a while now.

M&C: Do you still remember your first contact with Mayer & Cie.?

FR: The first time I visited Mayer & Cie. was in 1997 or 1998, I can’t remember exactly. The memories are positive though. It was impressive to see the production of circular knitting machines live for the first time, the technology, the precision… That impressed me enormously. It is not for nothing that Mayer & Cie. is leader in technology. Then of course the people. Many of them are still part of the company today.

M&C: How often do you come to Germany, to Mayer & Cie.?

FR: I’m there at least once a year, in some years it works out twice.

M&C: Is there a customer in Brazil, a collaboration with a customer that you are particularly proud of?

FR: Our customer, the Malwee Group, a leading fashion company in Brazil, works 100 percent with machines from Mayer & Cie. There are around 120 circular knitting machines from Mayer & Cie. in action. We work closely with the people there, from knitter to management level. We have personally covered a lot of distances together and used to stand side by side at the machines in various knitting mills.

Horst and I have also known each other for a long time. Once, at ITMA 1999 in Paris, we went to a restaurant with a whole group of representatives from Latin America. The atmosphere carried away the other guests of the restaurant; in the end we all had a big party together…

At that time, the cooperation between the Mayer representatives in Latin America – Portugal and Spain were often part of the gang – was closer than it is today: We met once or twice a year at a trade fair such as Febratex or Tecnotextil and, on this occasion, got together for further training and meetings. Rainer Mayer, Horst Maier and a technician from Mayer & Cie. always travelled there. We all benefited from this exchange. By the way, the schedule was always great - two to three hours of work, then two hours of sport. Repeat in the afternoon.

M&C: Horst, do you remember you always played tennis doubles together with Rainer Mayer, against the representatives from Bolivia and Mexico? Who won these doubles?

FR: Always Horst and Rainer Mayer!

M&C: When was that?

FR: That was in the 90s. At that time, the Brazilian market was very strong, the most important single market, followed by Mexico. Latin America, together with Spain and Portugal, accounted for around half of sales. I like to think back to those days …

When I meet people from the industry today and we talk about work, they are often surprised: “What, you’re still with Mayer?!” – “Yes, still with Mayer!”. Why? Because it has always been a pleasure for me to work for this company. For me, people are family, I’ve learned a lot, seen the world. Without this company I would know a lot less today, would have met fewer people, would have travelled less. Sometimes we joke about “Ma Mayer” – but that’s how it feels!

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