Handsaeme Invests a New Production Facility

Interview: Dilek Hayırlı

Jonas Beernaert, Sales Manager for Technical Textile & Carpet Machinery at Belgium-based Handsaeme Machinery; “The biggest investment, is without a doubt expanding our production facility. This extra space will help us keep all our production in house and supply even bigger machine lines.”

Handsaeme Machinery which operating worldwide, including the carpet, textile and wood industry; provides various automation services such as cutting, rolling, packing, conveying, fastening, inspecting and measuring. For the Belgium Special Issue, we interviewed with Jonas Beernaert, Technical Textile & Carpet Machinery Sales Manager of Handsaeme Machinery. Evaluating the year 2023 and the developments in the carpet and technical textile sector, Beernaert commented: “Turkey is an important player in the carpet sector, so it is also an important market for us.”

“We Received Many New Project Requests in 2023”

How was the year 2023 for your company? Can you evaluate it in terms of your production volume, orders, and export markets?

2023 was a special year. The year started with a lot of new requests for projects. Especially due to our participation in the DOMOTEX fair in Hannover in the beginning of the year. Up to the summer holidays we kept on having a lot of new requests. Mainly due to the ITMA fair in Milano being a great succes. However, after the summer holidays the amount of requests have died down a bit and a lot of projects keep on being postponed. Probably caused by the uncertain economic climate. In general we had some nice projects especially for the tuft and technical textiles industry.

What have been the benefits to users of the products Handsaeme has launched on the market in the last few years? Are you satisfied with the customer’s interest in these products?

The main focus of our company is providing a tailored solution for our customers. A solution specifically for the needs of the customer. Almost every machine we make, has a little (or big) difference with the standard machine we start from, depending on the needs of the customer. It’s this flexibility that gives a lot of benefits for our customers. They don’t have to settle for a standard solution.

What is Handsaeme’s market positioning with respect to the textile machinery market today? In which segment of textile machinery do you have major pie?

The first segment of our bussiness is located in the machine made carpet industry. Here we provide confection machinery to finish carpets (cutting, edge finishing, rolling & packing). We make these machines for the woven carpet industry as well for the tuft carpet industry. Next to the confection machinery we also develop auxiliary equipment for the tuft industry. A few examples of these systems are the creeling in front of the tuft machine and the inspection and winding machinery after the tuft machine. The second segment of our bussiness is machinery for the technical textile industry. Basically we make the machinery that comes after the production machinery itself. For example: Cutting and winding systems that come after a needlepunch line.

“Turkey, an important player in the carpet industry, is also an important market for us”

Which are your major markets? Where do you see the potential for your product offerings to grow? Can you tell us about the importance of the Turkish market for your company?

Our biggest market is still Western Europe, where still a lot of carpet is made and a lot of technical textile is developed. Not to forget that most European carpet manufacturers also make artifical turf as it is produced in the same way as tufted carpet. This is an important industry for us as well. Next to Western-Europe Turkey is an important player in the carpet industry, so this is of course an important market for us as well. In Turkey we mainly supply our high end and innovative fully automated machinery for the confection of woven carpets. Also, more standard machines are mostly developed and manufacturered. Other regions of importance to us are of course the Asian and American market where we supply confection machinery for tufted carpet.

Which kind of innovations, trends and progress is expected in upcoming years in the technical textile finishing, packaging, carpet and automation?

The main question when buying a machine, used to be: What’s the return on investment? Nowadays there’s a lot of other topics playing a part in the purchase of a machine as well. One of the main topics is the environment. Companies are looking for ways to pack their products in a green manner. Some companies ask for packing machines that use less plastic. Like using a belly band instead of full packing. Other companies, especially in the technical textile industry, are looking to stop packing their prodcut all together. Another topic in Western Europe, is not automation to save labour cost but automation to fill gaps in production as a result of a labour shortage. We see a lot of companies having people retire, beging sick, changing work etc. and being unable to replace these workers.

Reducing production cost is a priority for all textile factories , how Handsaeme machineries can help manufacturers in this field?

Our machinery can lower production cost for the customer in different ways: Or we will provide an automated solution that will improve productivity with the same workforce. Or we provide a solution that gives the same productivity but with a smaller workforce. Either way, production cost will be lower than before.

Our machinery will also provide a more constant production in terms of quality. What will result in less second choice or rejected products. This also gives a higher output and thus lower production costs.

Digitalization is a great step to creat a common language to achieve more productivity and simplcity. How do you implement digitalization in textile machinery production?

All machines are fitted with modules for an online connection. This gives us the opportunity to respond quickly to potential problems and to help our customers remotely. Most machines can also be coupled to the ERP package of our customers to give them the opportunity to have a better overview of their productivity.

What are your goals for 2024? Will you have new machinery and investment projects for the near future?

The biggest investment, is without a doubt expanding our production facility. Next to the existing building, a new production site is buing built to further expand our bussiness. This extra space will help us keep all our production in house and supply even bigger machine lines.