NOVA Textil-Beschichtung GmbH (NTB), a specialised fabric coating and finishing company, has undergone a comprehensive modernisation of its Monforts MONTEX business, strengthening its longstanding relationship with the German machinery maker.
NTB’s collaboration with Monforts began in 1999 with the installation of its first MONTEX stenter at its Grefrath, Germany facility. Back then, the company operated from a modest 1,000 sq.m. site with only three team members. By 2019, NTB expanded to 3,500 sq.m. across two sites and employed 40 people, reaching €8 million in annual sales.
The new management team at NTB (clockwise from top left): Rainer Hurtz, Bastian Schreurs, Lampros Kampas and Oliver Hurz.
Initially, NTB focused on coating glass fibre fabrics and outdoor furnishing materials. According to managing director and founder Rainer Hurtz, a surge in demand by 2005 prompted the purchase of a second MONTEX stenter with a special setup, allowing NTB to enter the blackout and digital printing fabrics market.
NTB later gained approval from the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) to supply vector protection gear. In 2023, the Ministry of Defence granted a special exemption for processing permethrin, critical for vector protection.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic caused a 70% sales drop, NTB retained its workforce and launched Gorilla Protect GmbH in 2020 to distribute advanced antiviral masks. Regular operations have resumed, and NTB celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024.
With Rainer Hurtz stepping back, leadership has transitioned to his son Oliver Hurtz (Commercial Director), Technical Director Bastian Schreurs, and Sales & Development Manager Lampros Kampas. Rainer pledged continued support, stating that the company focuses on process optimisation, digitalisation, and energy and occupational safety management: “If you stop getting better, you’ve stopped being good.”
Technical Director Schreurs—NTB’s first trainee—highlighted the need to modernise to stay competitive amid price pressure from Asia. He stressed that digitalisation is also key to attracting young, tech-savvy talent. He added that the electronic controls on two older MONTEX stenters required urgent upgrades due to the difficulty in sourcing spare parts.
Monforts upgraded the stenters with new control cabinets, Qualitex 800 systems, PLC-based visualisation, multi-touch TFT displays, and Siemens TIA 1500er F portal integration. These upgrades, including OPC-UA data interfaces, enable seamless communication with NTB’s internal systems.
Monforts Area Sales Manager Thomas Päffgen explained that this upgrade enhances performance well beyond typical spare part replacements. Schreurs affirmed that NTB now has the flexibility to process all fabric orders on any of its three lines and praised Monforts’ service quality and NTB’s in-house team for flawless execution.
Rainer Hurtz concluded, “We’ve had a great ongoing relationship with Monforts from the beginning.”
