Loris Bellini was founded in 1949 with the main scope of designing, manufacturing and selling very high-quality yarn dyeing and drying machines destined to be installed in the yarn dyehouses around the world. Today, after more than 70 years of activity, the company still pursues the same objectives of the past with the introduction of new advanced technologies that bring a significant cut to running costs and consumptions for a consequent higher environmental safeguard. Director Luca Formentini talks to Fibre2Fashion about Italian textile machinery, automation and sustainability.
What kind of impact did the pandemic have on the Italian textile machinery industry?
Italy is amongst the top three exporters of textile machinery in the world and the COVID-19 pandemic shook the market in a negative way for approximately two consecutive years. However, good part is that Italians are a very strong people, and we could all sustain such a difficult moment until today. We are now absolutely ready to go back to our standards, in fact better than earlier.
Are you back to pre-pandemic levels of production and distribution?
During 2022, we have registered a volume of sales higher than it used to be in pre-pandemic period. There are probably different ways to explain such an exceptional year, but the primary reason is probably due to customers who had decided to stop investments during the pandemic era (basically two years) have this year decided to go ahead with what they were forced to put on hold due to the uncertain times we all went through during those days.
Forecast for 2023 is still optimistic and we look forward to repeating the same great results we could achieve this year.
Has there been any change in the way you do business post-pandemic?
Definitely yes. Though the pandemic brought in several negative aspects in everybody’s business routines, I guess that one positive outcome is to be found in how people could realise technology is there to help us to connect to each other again, even from remote positions. In fact, the pandemic was a time when many online platforms boomed. These platforms still represent a valid instrument today to do business in a different way.
Though online platforms served as a great alternative during the difficult times, I believe that we, as humans, will always need the physical presence to properly feel the people around us and do even a better business. Online platforms are shortcuts to get in touch with others very fast, but they could never substitute a handshake in person, which still remains the greatest satisfaction for all the stakeholders involved in a business.
Which are your major markets for dyeing, bleaching and drying machines?
The main markets for 2022 are China, Turkiye and parts of Europe. China accounted for approximately 60 per cent of the yearly turnover with massive investments in dyeing and drying plants for cotton and wool dyeing of packages and tops.
What kind of technological breakthroughs have you had in the last two years?
In the last two years we noticed that there is a strong interest in ‘automation’ from many customers, irrespective of the country they are actually located in. By automation, we mean everything that is related to the handling of the dyehouse by means of automatic machinery such as roof cranes or special robots that manage the materials in relation to loading carriers, centrifuges and dryers.
Our company was a pioneer in this field as we presented the first fully automatic installation in 1982. We could sell at least two important automatic installations in 2022, one in Germany for tops dyeing and the other one in Turkey for packages and tops dyeing.
Automatic plants bring several advantages when compared to manual ones. In particular, they need fewer human operators to achieve the same results in the dyehouse and, as a direct consequence of this, there is a complete elimination of human error, which inevitably translates in higher working efficiency and faster operations.
Should companies that want to go sustainable opt for Loris Bellini machines? Why?
Yes, absolutely. Loris Bellini has always been committed to sustainable textiles since many years, but our substantial contribution started when we introduced our Pulsar technology to the market in 2014. Pulsar is our revolutionary system for yarn and tops dyeing that required approximately four years of intense R&D before it was ready for a large-scale production.
Thanks to its worldwide patented circulation system, which is truly innovative in this field, Pulsar can achieve an extraordinary reduction of utility consumptions, such as 60 per cent less electric energy, 30 per cent less water and nearly 20 per cent less steam.
There are about 200 Pulsar machines installed worldwide at the moment, and we believe that they provide a significant reduction in CO2 emissions compared to standard machines.
What innovations are you currently working on?
Our R&D department never stops working on new ideas. We mainly concentrate on the optimisation of existing technology, and this usually comes from the direct feedback we receive from our customers. There is a work-in-progress on new technology too, but that is something which we should not discuss about before the first half of 2023.
Which machines have high market penetration at Loris Bellini?
Highly reduced consumptions of electric energy and water are fundamental aspects to keep up with productions goals, no matter whether the cost of those raw materials increase due to COVID aftereffects or due to geo-political troubles.
Our new Pulsar dyeing system has a clear key role in our market penetration strategies. Due to its great advantages, it is a perfect match with sustainable textiles, but it’s also an extremely valid tool to fight the energy crisis we are going through at this moment.
What new markets do you plan to explore in the years to come?
We have already explored nearly all markets directly connected with the textile industry, but some regions of Africa could be a good bet in the coming years.
What are the plans for expansion in future?
Our main target for the future is to strengthen our position in the major markets of the textile industry, where China, India, Turkiye and Pakistan played (and still play) a very important role for us. As mentioned earlier, we also intend to invest more resources in all those countries where we are not present at all, such as certain regions of Africa.
Published on: 30/11/2022
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.
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