An integrated and targeted approach to marketing is the only way to get the attention of companies in an industry where technology providers are vying for bigger market share with automation and robotics. And the recent takeover of Duerkopp Adler, PFAFF and KSL, by Shanggong (Europe) Holding Corp. GmbH is an effort to not only bring innovation, but value of synergies in production, sales and marketing. In the US, the local presence of the two garment technology giants from Germany, Duerkopp and PFAFF have been combined for the extra thrust in sales with the creation of ‘Duerkopp Adler Pfaff’ America, now popularly called DAP America.
While Duerkopp Adler has had its subsidiary in America since 1984, PFAFF had a subsidiary based in Atlanta which was 5 years old. With the merger of the two in 2011, marketing and distribution to the North of America which includes Canada, US and Mexico has been combined. Twenty-five people are based in Atlanta, serving the core sector markets, from garmenting, upholstery and automotive industry to the shoe industry. With a major presence at Texprocess 2014, the combined entity was geared to cover wider market needs. “The automotive industry is very important for us, especially here in the US, and we have now also identified the jeans segment for sales growth, which is the responsibility of PFAFF, as DA has been rather weak in the past in this sector and now together with PFAFF we can offer a broader product line. We are also present in welding, offering support to the technical textile segment,” said Dietrich Eickhoff, Executive Manager – Industrial Division.
At the fair, special attention was given to KSL, bearing in mind that the market for KSL and its special solutions particularly in the US is good. Attracting footfall for the brand was its robot, which is now two years old, doing the fully automatic top stitching of a complete dashboard of a car. The company believes that the competitive automotive industry is now constantly trying to differentiate with its interiors, and therefore one can find more and more stitching within the automotive, done with a robot. Already dealing with some successful manufacturers, Inteva, a producer of complete range of interiors and dashboards for the American car manufacturers, is one of the company’s most important clients using the KSL robots in their facilities.
“We have seen good business driven by the automotive industry for the last two-and-a-half to three years. Though the automotive sales here in the US are dull, but they are still amongst the biggest markets in the world for automotives. Every time the labour cost increases, the know-how becomes limited and therefore you need to automate. There are many complicated types of stitching that only a robot can do and going forward we see growing sales for our automotive equipment,” claimed Eickhoff.
The growth strategy for the company is to continue focus on the automotive industry, increase focus on the technical textile segment and expand the denim business, all of which have growth potentials in the coming future.
