#Knitting & Hosiery

2023-05-17

Direct approach in Indonesia

The KARL MAYER GROUP takes over the direct support of its customers in Indonesia.

The ILLIES Group has been a reliable and competent sales partner of the KARL MAYER GROUP in Asia for many years.

The two companies recently decided to change their approach to providing support for their customers in Indonesia. Illies withdrew from KARL MAYER’s Indonesian business on 1 May 2023. The KARL MAYER GROUP expanded its regional approach and integrated all sales and service activities in the South-East Asian country into its own performance profile.

The global player took over all the competences and capacities of its representative to continue to provide reliable professional support to its customers, now at first hand. The two partners had worked out a joint support concept to ensure a trouble-free and seamless transition.

“The KARL MAYER GROUP is looking forward to being even closer to its important sales region of Indonesia,” says Kevin Socha, Managing Director of KARL MAYER (H.K.) Ltd. The country is one of the top 10 textile-producing nations and is ranked 12th in the list of the largest textile and clothing exporters, according to an industry report by the Indonesian Textile Industry.

Kevin Socha, Managing Director of KARL MAYER (H.K.) Ltd. © 2023 KARL MAYER

STOLL in focus:

At the beginning of this year, KARL MAYER announced that it would be shifting its focus back to its core areas of warp knitting, warp preparation and technical textiles. As part of this strategic realignment, the flat knitting machine business under the STOLL brand will be discontinued. The Reutlingen plant will close down on 31 October 2025. Production in China will end in December 2025. This was an extremely difficult decision for KARL MAYER.

KARL MAYER develops seersucker WARP KNITS with even more character and style

Seersucker fabrics are icons of the clothing industry and assure their manufacturers' success. Just in time for ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025, the textile product developers at KARL MAYER have succeeded in creating brand new variants of this material. These fancy newcomers feature unique bubble effects and, with their new dimensionality, inject extra dynamism into the textile surface – and into the market.

The KARL MAYER Warp Knitting Business Unit at ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025

The manufacturing of warp knitting machines has made KARL MAYER a leader in its field. It remains the company’s most important Business Unit today and has established its name as a brand in the warp knitting industry. KARL MAYER stands for the very highest quality, performance and technical progress. In a persistently difficult market environment, the company is seeking to strengthen its outstanding reputation and, above all, focus more than ever on innovation. The man responsible for this reorientation is Axel Wintermeyer, who has been President of the Warp Knitting Business Unit at KARL MAYER since January 2025 and is also part of the Management board.

Lutz Wolf becomes CEO of the KARL MAYER Group

Effective 1 November 2025, the Supervisory Board of the KARL MAYER Group, a leading global provider of solutions in textile machinery manufacturing, has appointed Lutz Wolf (51) as the new sole CEO of KARL MAYER Holding SE & Co. KG. Wolf will assume overall responsibility for the internationally active group of companies, which has its headquarters in Obertshausen, Germany.

KARL MAYER shows new solutions in its core technology at ITMA ASIA + CITME 2025

“How can I increase my efficiency? How can I boost my productivity? How can I identify new business areas?” No matter what customers have in mind, KARL MAYER takes care of it! “WE WARP. WE KNIT. WE CARE.” This is the motto of the company’s 360 m² booth A 301 in hall 5 of the Singapore EXPO and the standard KARL MAYER sets for its work.

Rieter reports stable order backlog and strategic progress – outlook for 2025 adjusted

In its Investor Update 2025, Rieter announced an order intake of CHF 203.9 million in the third quarter and CHF 559.3 million after nine months, reflecting a continued cautious investment climate in the textile machinery sector. Sales totaled CHF 121.5 million in the third quarter and CHF 457.7 million for the first nine months of the year, while the order backlog stood at around CHF 590 million as of September 30, 2025.