The German pioneer of jacquard flat knitting machines Stoll, in the business for more than 139 years, continues to drive with same passion and commitment even today. Present in the country since 2006, the company claims to have installed 1,800 machines in the country – resulting in an astounding annual growth rate of 200%. Representing the company at the DTG fair, Thomas Hoffmann, Area Sales Manager, Stoll, in an exclusive interaction with Apparel Online, claims Bangladesh as the 2nd biggest market for Stoll, right after China and believes that even if a mere 10% of China’s sweater business shifts to the country, it would require alone 25,000 flat knitting machines, whereas just 4,000 are installed presently… leaving no doubt about the prominence of the country in Stoll’s growth plans.
AO: In your opinion, what would be the reasons for the shift of sweater business from China?
TH: People in China have so many manufacturing options that they don’t need to stick to the apparel and textile industry, moreover the industry is not a good paymaster compared to others. Secondly, it is now becoming difficult to find linking operators in the country, and linking is the most critical operation in fine knits. And the reason why for the dearth of linking operators! Because the job is very demanding on the operators, as after working for 5-10 years the eyesight of the person doesn’t remain sharp enough to do the job any more.
Thirdly, if not Bangladesh then where would the business be, the only places left are Cambodia and Myanmar… while Cambodia is a small country in general, Myanmar will take another 10 years to develop the right infrastructure to sustaining apparel and textile manufacturing.
AO: How has been your experience in the country both as a market and as an apparel manufacturing hub?
TH: The high-end sweater business started coming in the country when buyers started demanding 50,000 intarsia sweaters along with 5,00,000 basic sweaters. It was the wish of the buyers to get everything from a single manufacturer, which laid the foundations of such a product in the country.
With time people started replacing manually operated and labour intensive hand flat knitting machines with computerized ones to deal with the complex piece rate system of payment and fast changing fashion trends. And we were the early entrants to start educating the industry on computerized flat knitting machines.
AO: What is Stoll’s competitive edge?
TH: We have been making machines since 139 years and the industry credit us to have enough idea regarding how to make the best machines. But then it also takes someone who can use the product properly, since the day we set foot in the country our focus has been on building a technical team irrespective of the sales we make. We presently have a team of 35 technicians in the country, who not only maintain the machine’s hardware and software, but are so technically equipped that they even teach the people how to design a sweater. Moreover, our agents in the country Tricoted, headed by Ibrahim Pacal and AKM Habibullah, have a long-term experience in sweater business with profound knowledge of the particularities of Bangladesh culture and approach.
Principally, we would like the industry to start making money from the day the machines are installed on their premises and for that we start training the staff from the day order has been placed, and sometimes start eight weeks before the machines arrive in the factory. Our local team also keeps doing their R&D, assuring better support to the clients.
AO: You started with selling second-hand machines in the country… but not anymore, why?
We did sell second-hand machines in the country 4-5 years ago, as people required only 3-5 machines then and the Government subsidies for second-hand machines were still active. Nowadays we are talking about installing minimum 50 machines and I personally don’t recommend second-hand machines for this kind of an investment as we don’t have 100 reconditioned machines of the same type. So if someone wants second-hand machines in such a number he would end up with a mixed lot, which makes it even more difficult for us to train the people, in the end they might save 20% of the investment but add 100% to their troubles.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
