Mayer & Cie, the circular knitting and braiding machine manufacturer based in Albstadt, Germany, reports a positive 2021, with sales exceeding €100 million.

 Production is now at full capacity for the circular knitting machine sector and in order to maintain its market, the company continues to rely on the digitisation of both its processes and its products, with substantial investment at its headquarters planned in 2022.

“Compared with 2020, our group sales were up by about 40% in 2021,” said managing director Benjamin Mayer. “After two difficult years we were able to restore sales to a stable level of around €103 million. This could have been even better had supply chain problems not hampered production.”

The company’s order position has stayed at a high level since the fourth quarter of 2020 and orders in hand will already keep the circular knitting machine division busy until the end of the year.

Orders are coming in from all over the world, but especially from the company’s core markets of Turkey, China and India.

The conflict in the Ukraine, however, coul;d lead to general purchasing restraint in the capital goods sector, and in addition, the effects of the conflict such as high energy prices and interruptions in material supplies and logistics pose a genuine challenge.

Orders for braiding machines also recovered in 2021, for both new machines and especially for spare parts.

“We aim to expand in this area in the years ahead with further developments to existing machines and plans for new machines,” said Mayer.

Digitisation

Production and machine data, which is bundled and available to access worldwide in real time, is part of the vision of Sebastian Mayer, also a member of the company’s management. He and his team have in recent years created a digital backbone that connects the entire company. Product lifecycle management (PLM) has standardised and streamlined historical processes in production and development. What customers see are the online spare parts Web shop, the remote maintenance options for machines and the bundling of production and machine data on the knitlink platform.

Mayer & Cie has once more won an award for its in-house and external digitisation measures as one of the most innovative German SMEs

“Even in difficult years we have deliberately focused on optimising core processes in order to be able to hit the ground running when the market recovers,” said Sebastian Mayer. “We are naturally pleased to have been able to set a benchmark with this approach.”

“To operate successfully in the long term, investing in the location is absolutely essential,” added Benjamin Mayer. “That is quite clear in the policy of modernising machinery that we are pursuing.”

In the years ahead a range of production machinery – lathes, gear cutting and grinding machines – is to be replaced at a scheduled cost of low double-digit millions. Last year saw an investment in a robot-controlled laser hardening system for heat-treating machine components.

The company has also completed its on-site energy upgrade with a CHP cogeneration plant that will now supply much of the energy consumed the main production facility in Albstadt.

www.mayercie.com