EDITORIAL

Itema Invests to Grow for its Customers, Employees, Partners

Dear Readers,

2019 is over and, as Itema, we came a long way during last year.
In a year that saw the textile machinery market suffering for a number of macro and micro economic and political dynamics, we managed to maintain a stable position in all the main markets as a result of foresighted manufacturing, commercial and financial strategies implemented over the years.
Perfectly fitting the landscape are the acquisitions carried out by Itema since 2017 with the target to integrate key expertise and resources for the development of weaving machines components and to grow in highly potential, complimentary businesses.
In 2017, Lamiflex was the first company to join Itema Group, bringing significant contribution to the joint development of key weaving machines accessories. In the last few years, the fruitful cooperation between Itema and Lamiflex’s engineers had already produced outstanding results, such as new key rapier transfer parts – for example the TLC Triple Layer Carbon that ensures double lifetime of components – and, recently, the new heald-frame SKYFRAME™.
But the development efforts are not only limited to the creation of innovative composites components for the textile machinery industry. In fact, Lamiflex – as a leading provider of advanced composites solutions – is systematically growing also in the medical, industrial and aeronautical industries, thus generating valuable diversified incomes for the Group.
In 2019 we added two new entities to the Itema Family, further enlarging and empowering our organization and our products, the real reason-why of all our moves. The first one was PTMT (ex Panter), that by entering the Group brought the Itema project about technical fabrics to life. In fact, we launched Itematech, the Itema technical textiles division, with the aim of establishing a new technological benchmark in technical fabrics weaving by providing the market with the most comprehensive product offering to weave these highly specialized fabrics.
In September 2019, we added another piece of the puzzle to Itema Group, by reaching an agreement for taking over Schoch, leading producer of weaving accessories, including reeds and other components. You can read more about Schoch acquisition targets and goals in this article.
Last but not least, together with important partners, Itema promoted and launched the new ATC – Additive Technology Center, an innovative and advanced center dedicated to additive manufacturing techniques. Discover more about ATC, its mission and its services in the article that you can find in this Red Dot News.

Many events made this year a great one for Itema and, in this regard, it is impossible not to mention ITMA, the main event in the textile industry for which we created a report for you at this link

We hope you can find interesting contents about Itema in this Red Dot News, that also includes our traditional technology corner section and the amazing case history of Polopique experience with Itema weaving machines.

Enjoy your reading!