STOLL – a name that inspires and at the same time, stands for quality and flexibility in the world of knitting. The STOLL brand has achieved a legendary reputation equipped with many facets. For more than 145 years, the image of a consequently solution orientated manufacturer of flat knitting machines has been maintained and further developed. Today, for many customers, the STOLL enterprise is the integrative link between the highly sophisticated technology in the area of developing and manufacturing flat knitting machines on the one hand and an innovative independent thinker and developer in the section of Fashion & Technology and Technical Textiles on the other hand.
Exclusive conversation with Mr. Martin Legner and Mr. R.Saravanan
Stoll was found in 2003 in India. Initially, it was set up in our service center but after three years, we converted into a fully owned subsidiary and are now working with nearly sixty members, mostly technicians. Our major market covers Delhi and Ludhiana based on maximum customer basis. Predominantly, our population are from fashion industry right now but technical textile picking up, We are already have customers in medical textiles and have done some projects in these areas in this two years. We have a special project in Bombay which deals with platinum wires and which is our dedicated application. We hold a high value and are not in the general mass market but we have specialized projects which are being handled right now and more to come.
Product we build
We basically are machine builders and have a purpose and have machines that are capable to knit, let’s say, regular apparel. We use its technique in order to implement, why it’s a high functional super technical piece of application, whether it’s for office furniture or for more reviews. We use knit to shape shoe apparels and bags and all these types of things. We come from a fashion side but we try to really extend our business for our machinery and participated techtextil 2019 to promote these types of applications and find an interesting base of customers and make them understand what the technology is all about and how it can be used for a huge idea of applications.
Market Share in India
We have a Japanese competition and we have about 65% of the market share in organized and branded segment in India but then we also have Asian companies who sell at a much lesser price.
Market in 2019
It has been quite sluggish, to be honest, because there have been multiple problems in the segment, the backlogs weren’t doing well, there wasn’t fresh funding for the industry. It is moving quite slow because of all these issues. We had assigned a lot of projects but the delivery took time. So we have had a sluggish first half, but the second half has been good. We have upcoming projects and the delivery system has improved. We look forward to 2020 because once these problems get sorted out, get banking finance; we expect growth to be faster. The industry is booming but the only problem now is finance.
2020 Vision
We look forward to 2020 as we have a few early projects and discussions going on. Hopefully we move faster. Initially few companies had bought Chinese machines but now we hope the industry wants to buy machines which are more flexible. We have newer models as compared to last year and we hope to be more active in 2020 than the previous year.
Purpose of participation in Techtextil India 2019
It has been quite a good show for us this time. The first two days, we were really busy and we had good quality buyers who are quite interested in follow ups. Our expectation goes towards serious project investigations and maybe joint product developments. As compared to the first time we were here, which I think was two years ago, the second time is when we established the right position in the Indian market. This is what we do and what we want to achieve and it shows our commitment towards the Indian market. It’s to show the Indian people that we are not here to test the Indian market but we are here as a constant partner to the companies that are interested in this type of technology.
R&D Philosophy
We have an R&D center more or less with all our large subsidies. Particularly here in India, we have a well experienced and well educated staff and I can say that wherever we are represented in India, whether it’s the north or the south, we should have the capability to support enquiries of customers who have the need for a specific product and if they are interested in investments.
We sometimes try to do some of the implementations by upgrading which is mostly driven by ideas like presenting new yarn functions and material which we basically integrate in our knit process and then add on some finishing processes to see how the yarn changes. In case it changes, we see how it affects the products outcome. Other than that, we are depending on our partners and their ideas and needs and we take them with us as it is our goal to have joint developments and new products which they need for their market. We have through that not just new product developed but maybe also new customers who are applying the use of our machines to help develop the future and extend our business by this.
