Karl Mayer Closer to Turkish Customers with Own Subsidiary in Bursa
News&Interview: Dilek Hayırlı
The Karl Mayer Group the leading textile machine manufacturerer and market leader in the area of warp knitting and warp preparation machines, has taken a step to further strengthen its presence in the Turkish market. Karl Mayer has opened a new subsidiary in Bursa to respond faster to the increasing demands of Turkish customers.
This new subsidiary will focus its activities strongly on after-sales support, technical service, digital online support, digital solutions and spare parts supply.
As Tekstil Teknoloji magazine, we followed the opening ceremony of Karl Mayer Bursa subsidiary. Here are the details from the opening…
“Our Founder Mr. Karl Mayer personally installed the first machine delivered to Turkiye”
Hosted by Karl Mayer together with Erko Managing Partner Roland Kunze-Concewitz and Erko Partner Yasemin Kunze-Concewitz, the opening ceremony of the new Karl Mayer subsidiary was held on 7 September in Bursa Nilüfer.
Karl Mayer Group CEO Mr. Arno Gärtner made the opening speech of the ceremony which was attended by many customers, guests and senior executives of Karl Mayer Group and Erko, and illustrated the history of the company’s activities in Turkiye.
Gärtner; “Karl Mayer entered the Turkish market in 1948, shortly after the Second World War. The first machine sold to Turkiye, the machine model K2, was installed by our founder Mr. Karl Mayer himself. This machine was the 207th machine sold by Karl Mayer at that time, and we recently shipped our 135,500th machine.”
Mr. Gärtner stated that growth was limited due to applied import restrictions in the years when Karl Mayer entered the Turkish market, and said that their customers started to make serious investments after import restrictions were lifted in the early 1980s. Arno Gärtner stated that in time Karl Mayer started to sell and deliver knitting, curtain and jacquard machines to the leading manufacturers in Turkiye.
In 2001, when he himself started working for Karl Mayer, Mr. Gärtner explained that he was responsible for lace and curtain machines in Turkiye; “Turkiye was one of the most important markets for me. At that time, I had the opportunity to travel to Turkiye very often and get to know many of our customers closely. The time I spent in Turkiye left important traces on me. Turkiye has a very strong textile journey, long years of know-how and I believe that it is in a very good position despite the crises experienced today.”
“We will further strengthen our presence in Turkey with our Bursa Subsidiary”
Reminding that Turkey has been a very important market for Karl Mayer for many years, Gärtner stated that the subsidiary opened in Bursa will constitute an important milestone in the history of the company. Gärtner continued his words as follows: “We are honoured to open our own subsidiary for the Turkish market with the support of our long-term agent and reliable friend Erko. The purpose of our investment in Bursa is to further support our customers with maximum efficiency in line with our core customer-oriented value, ‘We Care About Your Future’. With this positive and forward-looking approach, both Karl Mayer and Erko executives believe that our customers will strongly benefit from our new subsidiary in Bursa. With our Bursa subsidiary, we will further strengthen our presence in Turkiye. We will offer our support, innovations and especially digital solutions to our customers and together we will overcome the challenges ahead.
Karl Mayer Academy Trainings Start in October
After the opening speech held jointly by Karl Mayer Group CEO Mr. Gärtner and Erko Managing Partner Mr. Roland Kunze-Concewitz and the ribbon was officially cut and the new subsidiary opened to the large crowd of customers, guests, Karl Mayer and Erko company members who then entered the new subsidiary and were guided to the relevant stations to receive individual information from the company officials.
Built on an area of 1000 m2, the 3-storey subsidiary has a service and office area, textile sample rooms, workshop for small repairs and warehouse for spare parts business.
In addition, the subsidiary has a fully equipped textile academy, which provides a full range of theoretical and practical training in the fields of textiles, machine utilisation and digital solutions, following the highest Karl Mayer Academy standards. In the academy practical machine training will start in October on the installed HKS 4 ON training machines. The trainings are mainly focused on the customers needs and are designed to be held monthly consisting of basic training, analysis training, advanced operation training. Courses for students and staff striving to enter the industry will also be made available.
Meanwhile, Erko A.Ş. will continue to concentrate on machine sales activities by utilising its market presence, long-term experience and extensive networks.

Axel Wintermeyer, Vice President of Care Solutions Business Unit Warp Knitting
“Our Turkish Customers are Innovative and Strong, We Will Overcome Challenges Together”
After the opening ceremony of Bursa Branch, we made a special interview with Axel Wintermeyer, Vice President of Care Solutions Business Unit Warp Knitting who initiated and led the project Karl Mayer Bursa from day one and executed the completion of the subsidiary together with Yasemin Kunze-Concewitz, partner at Erko.
How did you decide to open a new subsidiary in Turkey? What were the most important factors in making this decision?
As our CEO mentioned in his opening speech, Turkiye has been a very important market for Karl Mayer for many years. Considering the importance of this market and the on going developments, we realised the importance, the potential and decided it would be a very good step to be closer to our customers with a full focus on all after sales activities including practical and theoretical academy training, services and spare part availability.
“When many of our customers are in Bursa, it was an appropriate decision to open an office here”
Why did you prefer Bursa?
Many factors were effective in our preference for Bursa. First of all, our Bursa office is located in a very convenient and easily accessible location which offers a very good infrastructure. In addition, since most of our customers are in this neighbourhood, it was a good decision to open an office in Bursa. Furthermore we want to build good relations and co-operation with the universities here in region.
What will be the advantages of Bursa Subsidiary for the Turkish market?
One major advantage will be to propell warp knitting knowledge new developments. There are many innovations and innovative customers here in Turkiye. With the Karl Mayer set up in Bursa we will be able to provide the necessary support bringing a innovative idea to a visible fabric.. To provide this support, you first need to understand the customer’s idea and then transform it into a fabric with the fabric forming technology. This is what we are best at to support because we have a strong knowledge of textile development and production. Through our subsidiary, we will provide the basic support from which customers will benefit from easily and quickly. This foundation will provide a long term benefit for the industry.
The whole world has been going through a challenging period since the pandemic. As a textile machinery leader, how do you evaluate the textile industry in Turkey and its future potential?
The world is currently going through a difficult period. However from a medium to long-term perspective, we are positive and confident. Our investment here in Bursa underlines this clearly also as a signal that we are there for our customers to Master the Change. The team from Karl Mayer and myself had the opportunity to meet and talk to some of our Turkish customers whom I met on the occasion of the opening. The foundation is strong and there is noteable general optimism. Together we will come out of this phase strong.
Have there been any changes in the demands from your customers recently? What are the latest technologies that Karl Mayer has developed to meet these demands?
Not only in Turkiye, but in fact all over the world, the shortage of qualified personnel able to operate the machines at full potential and produce new products is an issue. Therefore, there are trends towards simplifying the machine operation with smart solutions supported by digitalisation. All our products, including HKS 4 ON, which we installed at the academy in Bursa, use many digital tools that make the operation of the machines much simpler than before. We are taking steps to implement easy-to-understand, easy-to-use digital solutions on our machines. Thus, the entire handling and management process of fabric production is also easier for customers.
Which key factors are driving the global warp knitting machines market?
Globally, warp knitting is among the sectors with the highest productivity quality and design flexibility. We are focussing on the digitally assisted use of our machines, this is what we are currently concentrating on. We exhibited our digital product portfolio at ITMA 2023 and the feedback we received was very encouraging. Digitalisation is the key factor here and this is where we are strongly focusing on.
“2023 was difficult, but we are optimistic for 2024 and 2025”
We are approaching the end of another challenging year for the global economy. How was 2023 for Karl Mayer? What are your expectations for 2024?
Until now 2023 was challenging. As known, within the Karl Mayer Group; we have the business units warp knitting, warp preparation, our digital business unit KM ON., technical textiles and flat knitting unit which is included in the group with Stoll. Each business unit has its own challenges. ITMA 2023 in Milan in June gave us a very good motivation to continue what we do. As metioned we are optimistic and focused on the mid to longterm developments. Our committment here in Bursa underlines this perspective with our new subsidiary.