Bangladesh has been the world leader when it comes to sweater manufacturing, but its strength in the category is limited to basic sweaters, which is no match to the quality and structural range of jacquard flat knit sweaters. Since the buyer constantly expects the manufacturers to offer a one-stop solution for its entire need in that particular category, big doors have opened for quality machine manufacturers to aggressively introduce fully automatic jacquard flat knitting machines in the market. And a major beneficiary to
this change has been German flat knitting machine manufacturer Stoll.
Although the company has an established presence in the market, it was in 2007 that Stoll setup its office in Bangladesh with Tricotex as its sole agent. “In those days, out of every 10 styles, 2 were jacquard, which had to be outsourced. With the increase in demand of fashion sweaters, the industry’s demand for jacquard machines increased too. And we were there to give industry the machines and the training,” says AKM Habibullah, Director, Tricotex Machinery Limited.
One of the biggest challenges for Stoll in the earlier days was to compete with the low-cost Chinese and Taiwanese flat knitting machines. Many in the industry argued that Stoll machines are too expensive and result in long ROIs. Even though expensive, Stoll machines have a better ROI. The company’s aim is minimizing the dependency on labour and increasing the productivity and both can be easily achieved by Stoll machines.
One of the biggest challenges for Stoll in the earlier days was to compete with the low-cost Chinese and Taiwanese flat knitting machines. Many in the industry argued that Stoll machines are too expensive and result in long ROIs. It took time for Habibullah, with the help of Stoll engineers to educate the industry that even though expansive, Stoll machines have a better ROI. “Our aim is minimizing their dependency on labour and increasing the productivity and both can be easily achieved by our machines,” claims Habibullah.
Apart from their performance benefits, Stoll machines have a longer life and relatively higher resale value in the market. Another misconception that is stuck with Stoll machines is that the machines are good for only jacquard which Habibullah clarifies, “Stoll machines can do Intarsia, cables, structures and many possibilities in knitting techniques, with the same efficiency as jacqards. Plus the machine can run continuously for 24 hours uninterruptedly.”
Customer satisfaction is the cornerstone of any business, especially when selling technologies and to ensure the same service at Stoll is holistic in nature, pre-sale and post-sale support is guaranteed to the customers. “We have a staff of 35 people, out of which 26 are technician,” says Habibullah, completely backed by the team in Germany with German technicians visiting Bangladesh every month to train the staff. “We give preliminary training even before the arrival of the machine, so that the operator understands the control system right from day one and not even a day’s work is wasted. Post-sale, we are always ready to solve their problems, be it by going to their premises or by demonstrating the solution here in our training centre,” informs Habibullah.
The company also organizes training classes for duration of 1-2 months for operators on software programming. It is only in extreme cases, that the problems are referred to Germany, while most of the time they are solved at the local level. Tricotex also maintains an exhaustive inventory of spare parts and in the case when spare part is not available, it takes not more than 15 days to source it from Germany.
The company at present enjoys 35-40% market share, with 35 customers, and has an eye on many prospects for the coming year. The year 2013 has been an extremely successful one for the company and Habibullah expects to sell more than 1000 machines by the year end, crossing the target set for the year. While Stoll’s economy series machine CMS-502HP is the best seller in the market, the noteworthy innovation is CMS-530 HP, which is a compact machine, ideal for intarsia and picking up in the market. Both the machines are easy to operate, versatile, with operating software in Bengali as well. “We would like to maintain our dominance in the region, in both quality as well as service,” concludes Habibullah.
