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Interview with Mr Andre Lang

Mr Andre Lang
Mr Andre Lang
President
Norafin GmbH
Norafin GmbH

Norafin Gmbh is the subsidiary of Vernal A/S, the renamed company from Jacob Holm & Sons STA. Norafin serves the Specialty as well as the Industrial Markets offering innovative spunlaced, needlepunched and composite Nonwoven roll goods and specialty products applied in market segments of filtration, industrial applications, performance apparel, automotive, medical applications, roofing, and flooring. Tytex A/S is the sister concern of Norafin and medical textiles manufacturing arm of Vernal A/S. Tytex develops and delivers medical textile products for global Health Care companies. Mr André Lang has been active in the nonwovens industry for more than 10 years. He was able to gain vast experience in the needlepunch and spunlace technology transforming his knowledge into valuable products needed for technical applications and specialty products. Mr Lang held various positions in the industry, such as the Production and R&D Manager as well as the Plant Manager. Today, he represents Norafin as the President and is also a member of the Vernal Management Team. Interviewed by Face2Face team, Mr Andre Lang provides a gist on current scenario of Technical Textiles and the challenges that it confronts.

To start with, we would request you to tell our visitors more about the latest structural changes happened at your Group? How would these changes be a Springtime – ‘Vernal’ for the businesses of your Group?

Vernal, which stands for springtime, illustrates the core values of the new holding company symbolizing growth, development, freshness and change. It is our aim to make our stakeholders’ value grow offering a strong basis through our network and business processes and giving space to new ideas and promising business projects. The Group’s subsidiaries and their proprietary technologies allow us to combine our technical nonwovens with our advanced knitting technology.

 

Please comment on current scenario of Technical Textiles’ global market. What is your Group’s share in respective sectors of Technical Textiles?

We won’t comment on our Group’s share in the technical textiles sector. Generally speaking, the global market for technical textiles got very strong and important over the past years; innovative and customized product concepts are required by the customers.

Geographically, where do you find market penetration a hard nut to crack? Apart from this, which other are the challenges this industry confronts?

We focus on the European, North American and Asian markets including India. We believe that each market has its own rules that need to be respected in order to enter a market properly. Therefore, intercultural experience and leadership is needed. It is very important to team with the appropriate partners. From a technology point of view, we have to take into consideration the various regulations as standards differ from region to region.

Technology is revolutionizing the textile industry all over the world. What trends do you visualize in the coming times, for the industry?

Proprietary knowledge, innovation and freshness are the key words for future growth. As already stated earlier, trends go towards tailor-made product solutions that enable our customers to be silhouetted against their competitors. From a technological point of view, the use of nanotechnology will certainly become more important.

How has Vernal planned next decade in Technical Textiles including Medical sector? What would be R&D division’s possible announcement in immediate future?

Apart from the activities carried out in the individual target markets of our subsidiaries, we extend our common customer base as we have the chance to supply common customers from a common source.

For ecology and environmental conscience, how does your company deliver its responsibility?

Constant monitoring of the environmental impact of our activities is essential in order to ensure compliance with all relevant legislation and regulations. Care for environmental safety is also part of our image, both in the workplace and in our surroundings. Complete traceability is guaranteed and implemented in our Group.

Published on: 18/02/2008

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.