The KARL MAYER Group is an innovative market leader and driving force in textile machine building. This manufacturer offers solutions for warp knitting and flat knitting, for the fields of technical textiles and warp preparation for weaving as well as digital solutions for all customer groups under the KM.ON brand. With its international organization, the KARL MAYER Group is able to operate close to its customers. Along its headquarters in Germany, the company has subsidiaries in China, Japan, India, Bangladesh, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland and the USA. Since its foundation in 1937, the German family-run enterprise has been relying on financial independence and economic sustainability.

The company was set up by Karl Mayer in Obertshausen in 1937, initially as mechanical workshop. Later this was followed by the specialization in the manufacture of warp knitting machines with the variants tricot machines and Raschel machines. The first machine was delivered in 1948. Only two years later, in 1950, the company extended its portfolio by the production of warp preparation units for warp knitting. [1]

Up to the year 1990, the enterprise manufactured worldwide 75,000 textile machines for warp knitting and warp preparation. This represented two thirds of the production machines made worldwide for these areas at that time. 1991 started the production of warp preparation units for weaving. [1] In the year 2007, the KARL MAYER Group generated a worldwide turnover of 400 million euros with approx. 2,550 employees. [2] 2008 was the year in which the enterprise took over the Weaving Warp Preparation Division from Benninger AG in Uzwil (Switzerland) with 110 employees. [3] In 2010 KARL MAYER was world market leader with a market share of about 76%, with regard to the number and value of the warp knitting machines and warp preparation units sold [4]. The same year marked the delivery of the 100,000th machine. [5] Roughly 90% of the turnover was achieved with export business. The most important sales markets included not only Western Europe but especially Asia, South America and the Middle East.

In 2014 KARL MAYER took over LIBA Maschinenfabrik GmbH in Naila with 350 employees. This company also produced warp knitting and warping machines. [6] In 2017 KARL MAYER founded KM.ON GmbH as software start-up intended for the development of digital solutions. [7] In February 2020, KARL MAYER signed an agreement to acquire the STOLL Group.

Business units

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Today, the company operates in five Business Units:

Warp Knitting with the product groups lace, tricot, Raschel and double-needle-bar Raschel machines for the manufacture of high-quality

rigid and elastic lace, functional lingerie and apparel fabrics, warp-knitted spacer fabrics, seamless articles, plush fabrics, curtains, terry textiles

and semi-technical products; machines for the production of special textiles, e.g. for medical applications; warping machines for warp knitting

Warp Preparation with warp preparation machines for weaving, such as sizing machines and assembling maschines, beaming and warp beaming

machines, sectional warpers, warp sampling machines, denim dyeing units and creels

Technical Textiles with a focus on machines for the production of high-strength textiles or open grid structures, mainly for the fiber reinforcement of composites, in addition weft warp knitting machines and composite machines, fiber spreading units as well as spreading and impregnating equipment for the continuous manufacture of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic tapes

KM.ON with a digital offering portfolio, including eight solution categories, to support the customers in selected areas, and an access via a conventional industrial PC in combination with an appropriate computer program

STOLL with flat knitting machines and patterning software for producing fashionable and technical textiles, divided into the ADF Family, the Knit & Wear Class, Performer and TT machines as well as knitelligence® with a wide range of software products.


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Website KARL MAYER

References

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  1. a b lifePR (c) 2002-2020: Preisgekrönte Kettvorbereitungstechnik made by KARL MAYER, KARL MAYER Textilmaschinenfabrik GmbH, Pressemitteilung - lifePR. Abgerufen am 15. Mai 2020 (deutsch).
  2. Bundesanzeiger. Abgerufen am 15. Mai 2020.
  3. Karl Mayer takes over Benninger. Abgerufen am 15. Mai 2020.
  4. Langenscheidt, Florian, 1955-, Bauer, Ulrike.: Lexikon der deutschen Weltmarktführer : Die Königsklasse deutscher Unternehmen in Wort und Bild. 1. Auflage. GABAL, Offenbach am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-86936-221-2 (worldcat.org [abgerufen am 15. Mai 2020]).
  5. Optimismus bei Karl Mayer. 20. Februar 2010, abgerufen am 15. Mai 2020.
  6. Merger of KARL MAYER and LIBA on track (Zusammenschluss von KARL MAYER und LIBA nach Plan), Kettenwirk-Praxis 01/2014, p. 39.
  7. An exhibition full of future opportunities (Eine Ausstattung voller Zukunftschancen), Kettenwirk-Praxis 03/2018, pp. 2–5.