Automation is easier in non-apparel segment
Brother Internationale Industriemaschinen GmbH is a Germany-based company that specialises in the manufacturing and distribution of industrial sewing machines and related accessories. With a strong focus on innovation and customer satisfaction, Brother has become a leading brand in the industry, offering a wide range of products for a variety of applications. The company has a global presence, with operations in Europe, Asia, North America, and other regions, and is committed to providing high-quality products and services to its customers. In a talk with Fibre2Fashion, Marketing Manager Folker Stachetzki discusses sewing machines, textile printers, trends and latest machines that are to be showcased at ITMA 2023.
How big is the global market for industrial sewing machines? What is the share of Brother Internationale in it?
It is hard to estimate the global size of the market, but we can say it represents around $5 billion. The market of industrial sewing machines can be divided into two big groups: the low-end brands and the top-class brands. Considering top-class brands, Brother has around 30 per cent of the market share. In our territory EMEA, our market share is around 35 per cent.
Likewise, by segment, we can split the market into two: apparel and non-apparel. Apparel represents around 65 per cent of the total market size.
Can you tell us about a successful marketing campaign you implemented for Brother?
When we launched our direct to garment printer GTX several years ago, we wanted to establish the new product logo worldwide. We knew at that time that this logo would be with us for a longer period with several new high standard models. We succeeded in doing so, and now this logo is very well-known in the market for top products. This is the success of placing this logo in magazines, social media and at trade fairs over a long period of time.
How do you measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns?
Due to the size of our sales area and the fact that we do not sell directly to customers, this is relatively difficult. Of course, we compare the sales figures before and after promotions and, if campaigns are hosted on social media, the follower and interaction statistics.
What solutions does Brother offer in industrial sewing machines?
We have a wide range of products covering the apparel market’s needs. Brother is leading in sustainability and environmentally friendly products: lower power consumption, long time use of machines, in line with most strict regulations and rules.
We have products that meet the needs of apparel manufacturers from knitwear to classic wear, womenswear, uniforms and jeans. For the jeans market we have partnership with SIP-ITALY offering the most automatised full solution for jeans production.
In non-apparel, we have a limited range of products, but this segment is growing in our business. Our automated sewing machines are in leading position and are well-known as the most robust machines in the market.
Tell us about your direct to garment printers’ business.
We are active in this field for more than 15 years. Our sales area is the entire EMEA region – from Finland to South Africa, and from Iceland to Pakistan, we distribute our direct to garment printers and solutions through a network of certified dealers.
We have various models on the market – from printers for individual short runs to industrial mass production, we have solutions for all business models.
What are the biggest challenges you face in marketing sewing machines and textile printers?
As these are technical industrial products, a balance has to be kept between appealing advertising that stands out and the transfer of technical information. We also have to make sure that the advertising is more targeted, as the group of people you are trying to reach is relatively unique.
How do you balance the need to target new customers with the importance of retaining existing customers?
Both target groups are equally important to us and must receive the same attention in the preplanning. Of course, the campaigns planned for them differ from each other. New customer campaigns are more general and related to the product, while campaigns for existing customers tend to focus on new features, upgrades, and additional solutions.
How do you differentiate your products from those of your competitors?
Our range of products— from the printhead to the inks and the hardware—are all developed and manufactured in-house. This allows us to develop products that meet the demands of the market and have a high-quality standard.
In addition, our printers are very flexible due to their compact size and the wide variety of printing plates. This has proven to be a great advantage for our end customers, especially in recent years.
We are also ahead of many competitors in terms of the quality of our prints.
What marketing channels have been most successful for promoting your products?
This is relatively difficult for us to measure in a binding way, as we distribute through a worldwide dealer network. But, I think, we have had the greatest success after we started parallel campaigns. Press campaigns in combination with social media has generated a good reach and thus also increased sales. The important aspect here is to find the right channels for the right actions.
What do you see as the future of marketing in the textile and garment industry?
The three current trends mentioned earlier, in particular, sustainability and automation as well as digitalisation, will continue to play an increasingly important role in the future. Printing on demand also needs a rethink. Though it is now often used mainly for fashion, the advantages can be found in other areas. It results in reduced overproduction of seasonal fashion, as small to large quantities of a popular design can be reproduced quickly. This also eliminates the need for expensive warehousing of large quantities of pre-produced textiles and reduces transport routes, which saves CO2.
Is automation taking away jobs in the textile and apparel industry? To what extent?
Textile industry has always been using more manpower than other industries. Automation is easier in non-apparel segment. In last years, by producing more efficient machines, we could reduce the number of people and allow some textile industries to be back to Europe. However, it will be always hard to make advanced automation in the apparel industry. Machines are easier to use without experience in sewing, and are more productive, but they still need operators.
The growing demand from consumers for sustainable garments that are produced closer and are environmentally friendly is essential to bring back to Europe more apparel and non-apparel production.
What are the latest trends in textile and garmenting industry? Which of your machines are in more demand?
We see three major trends in this area at the moment.
The first trend is the personalisation of textiles of all kinds—from the classic T-shirt to jackets and jeans. More and more customers are demanding professionally finished clothing that not everyone else has.
The second major trend is the digitalisation and automation of productions and the connectivity of printers to the internet—not only for mass production, but recently even for small and medium-sized businesses. Placing orders in an online shop, automatic creation of print files through to shipment, the new digital solutions are getting better, simpler and cheaper by the day.
The third and ongoing trend is the demand for sustainably produced textiles. This need includes the whole production chain and therefore also the finishing of the textiles. Sustainable inks, low consumption and even the demand for vegan finished textiles have practically become a standard in the last few years. Those who do not adapt their production accordingly will sooner or later lose important orders and customers.
Can you describe your marketing strategy for Brother’s sewing machines and textile printers?
For sewing machines, our approach is to convince customers to go for high quality machines, and not look just to cheaper models with shorter lifetime.
We are strongly encouraging the recent trend of reshoring, i.e., bringing some productions to Europe and countries around, minimising environmental impact. Many European brands are looking to produce closer to their demand markets. We realised several projects of Made in EU garments and non-apparel products (leather, automotive, upholstery etc).
The high-quality standard of our products, as well as the high quality of the prints, the flexibility of our direct to garment range and the closeness to our customers are the core of our direct to garment strategy. Thanks to our own development department and our own production, we can react quickly to changing markets and to the requests of the producers.
Which machines are you showcasing at ITMA 2023 in Milan?
At ITMA 2023, we are present with two exhibition stands to showcase our entire industrial product range and the related solutions.
In the field of industrial sewing machines, we will show our latest model, the BM-2000 bonding machine, which allows you to seamlessly bond materials instead of sewing them. Also on display will be the Unison Feed machine, which is especially meant for heavy applications such as leather, and together with our partner SIP Italy, various solutions from the field of jeans production. In addition, of course, there will be several additional machines from our company to cover the most common production steps.
On the second booth we will demonstrate our products from the field of industrial printing. We will show a solution for the industrial production of DTF films, as well as the latest version of our GTX600 direct to garment printer. This version has two extra colours for a much larger colour gamut. This combined with the well-known advantages of the GTX 600 standard model sets new standards in the field of direct to garment mass production.
We are especially proud to show visitors another world first. Brother is, for the first time, adding an LWF printer to its portfolio. The WF1 LWF printer is designed for a large range of applications such as banners, drawings, window graphics, storefront signage, trade show graphics, vehicle wraps and outdoor advertising. Especially interior decorations like wallpaper, floor applications or paintings can be ideally implemented with our printer, as it does not degas or smell due to its water-based ink, which is also Green Guard Gold certified.
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