Headquartered in Puegnago del Garda (BS), Italy, Mesdan has a primary position among the biggest producers of testing equipment for the laboratory analysis of textiles. The company has a subsidiary in India and a joint venture in China. Fibre2Fashion spoke to Dejan Lalevic, sales director of Mesdan, to enquire how the company adapted itself to the new situation with the pandemic in the backdrop which led to cancellation of trade events and order cancellations.
Trade events are extremely important for textile machinery manufacturers. With so many events being cancelled around the world since the pandemic, how have these developments impacted your company? Could you elaborate both in terms of orders (since buyers were so adversely affected) as well as shipments (since supply chains were disrupted)? Are you looking at the future differently than earlier, especially since brands/retailers have been heavily hit and are likely to cut down on investments?
For Mesdan, exhibitions and live contacts remain the main pivot of information exchange and news diffusion. We adapted ourselves to the new situation activating other communication channels though we look forward to soonest reactivate direct relationships we used to have before the pandemic.
A diffused belief is that the garment market will take off only once the consumers restore their old habits, but it's also true that the pandemic left an indelible sign on such habits, on both the level and structure. Textiles are an extremely wide field; hence what may be valid for few segments may not be applicable for others. Unlike regular clothing, the production of technical yarns, performance fabrics, nonwovens and other similar products are increasing. We do notice such trend by our yarn splicers market, an increasing demand for splicers for technical yarns (such as carbon, glassfibre, aramids, etc). The same is confirmed with the demand of our testing equipment, more in the field of performance testing and R&D (like sportswear and uniforms), technical applications and less in respect to the traditional testing.
In parallel with the pandemic, we are witnessing an increase of concern towards the circular economy; hence, recycling and development of new materials, especially from natural fibres and their blending. This has triggered a conspicuous increase of demand for our mini-spinning line system.
We look at the future with optimism hoping to be able to meet as much as possible the new changes and its opportunities.
From our recent sales records, we can say that some countries almost restored its textile activities to a pre-pandemic levels. In fact, we registered very good 2021 Q1 results and we expect this to continue in Q2. For Q3 and Q4 is still difficult to predict. In fact, the whole Savio group registered same positive trends and achieved very good results.
Given this backdrop, how are you going to adapt to a post-pandemic world? Investment in textile machinery is done keeping the next 3-5 years in mind. Do you think buyers will now think more in terms of short-term investments (after all, one full year was lost to the pandemic)?
The pandemic left a great impact on all aspect of economy (logistics, trade, production, commissioning, transport, sourcing, etc). In many market segments, almost one year was lost. Now, we can see that several 2020 projects which were frozen eventually took off in the first quarter of 2021-a very positive sign.
In an increasingly digitised world, how are your machines keeping pace? What new innovations on the anvil?
Yarn splicing technology is a continuous process of small innovations, of performance improvements and our R&D is at the forefront of such developments. As for the lab equipment, at this moment we are working on several projects-the launch of a very new testing equipment is expected in June.
What is the global machinery market size of Mesdan? What are the key factors contributing to its growth? How big is the market for the ancillary industries related to your machinery?
Mesdan has two division hence let me give you a "dual" answer. Both markets are huge and extremely interesting: the Mesdan's Yarn Joining division market consists of automatic splicers on one end and the hand-operated splicers/knotters on the other end. As for the former, it rotates basically in spinning. We can estimate that about 40 per cent of yarn produced worldwide are being processed with automatic splicer carrying the Mesdan label on it. The biggest portion of automatic splicers is incorporated into Savio winders. Regarding the hand-operated splicers-it is a very wide and dynamic market. It covers virtually all industries where yarn is used regardless if those are single, plied or multi-fold, spun or filament. It spreads from the classic garment industry (spinning, knitting, weaving) to industrial yarns (carpets, sewing threads) to automotive (glassfibre, carbon and tire cord), to braiding and reinforcement (optical cables), pultrusion, defence & PPE (aramids, HDPE), baby diapers, etc. So, wherever there is yarn manipulation there is a need or an opportunity for a Mesdan splicer or knotter.
For the Mesdan-Lab division, laboratory testing equipment, the market is also highly diversified. Unlike other suppliers which basically focus on one or two market segments, Mesdan-Lab covers virtually all - fibre testing, yarn testing, fabric and knit testing (both physical and colour fastness assessment), garment testing, dyeing and finishing, PPE testing. Mesdan-Lab equipment is addressed to almost everybody who has some relationship with textiles - it starts from fibre classing/sorting labs and traders through institutes, R&D centres, didactic institutions, fashion brands, testing houses, sportswear, uniform and PPE manufacturers, geotextiiles, nonwovens and medical, recycling, etc. As for the later, our Mini-Spinning Line became extremely popular among startups involved in production of recycled yarn from old fabrics. So, wherever a textile materiel testing is needed, you have a big chance to find there a Mesdan-Lab piece of equipment in operation.
Where is the manufacturing/ production done for your machines? What is your installed capacity? How is the demand and supply worked out?
Mesdan is headquartered in the north of Italy in between Brescia and Verona on the shores of Garda lake. Mesdan has 120 employees and all equipment (splicers and Lab) are manufactured in Italy. Mesdan headquarters are equipped with the most advanced production technology. To provide more flexibility and buffer the textile cycles, we developed cooperation with several small companies in our region. We do also have a facility in Foshan China-this is only for the assembly of some models of splicers delivered to the local market. In our Coimbatore office, India, we have based our sales and service station handling splicers and lab equipment for fibre and yarn testing whereas RampImpex is our sales & service representative for fabric and garment testing equipment.
In the last two years, the Mesdan Lab has achieved two important milestones towards its commitment to the highest quality levels. In 2019, it received from Accredia (member of ILAC - International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) the ISO 17025 accreditation as Calibration Laboratory (LAT), the highest possible recognition of testing competence.
Mesdan in now the sole official calibration laboratory for a Martindale (wear and abrasion tester) in the whole of Italy and its Calibration Certificate has a legal force endorsement;
In 2020, its cotton stickiness testing method (incorporated in the Contest Stickiness tester) obtained the ITMF - ICCTM (International Committee on Cotton Testing Methods) recognition. Due to its highest correlation with processing behaviour and yarn quality, only thermo-mechanical methods (like the one used by Mesdan) are recommended in both production and cotton trade. In fact, the high variation in stickiness (sugar content) within a sample, as well as within a bale and within a lot, makes the thermo-mechanical method suitably designed for daily massive testing, in a trading context as well as in the spinning mill, thus overcoming the constraints of other methods (chemical and physical). Among different thermo-mechanical equipment used in the ITMF-ICCTM proficiency testing, the Contest-S results were proven to provide the lowest inter laboratory CV per cent variations.
What will you showcase in this year's ITMA Asia fair?
Mesdan will display on the Savio group in big booth in Hall 8, stand C22. Due to the pandemic, most probably our Italian team will not be able to attend the show thus our Chinese team will handle our booth. We'll have on display a selection of different splicing technologies (air splicer - wet splicer - hot splicer- moist splicer) as well a selection of lab testing equipment such as Aqualab (most rapid and accurate fibre and yarn moisture content tester), Attrifil III (most popular yarn friction tester), Airtronic (air permeability tester fitting a unique "pore-size" testing routine).
What are key machinery industry trends for future?
Nowadays, after one year of the covid-19 pandemic, the word "future" sounds little bit different than before. If I say digitalisation, automation, recycling and circle economy, sustainability, there's really nothing new but these are the real pillars of the present already.
I would add another pillar: integration. Recently, the Savio group was integrated into the Vandewiele group, another famous textile group from Belgium. I see this integration as a positive step forward were lots of common resources could be exploited, industrial experiences exchanged and new synergies developed. (PC)
Published on: 18/05/2021
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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