Focused on continuous innovation in mechanical regeneration of fibres
Established in 1851, Italian company Marzoli is a market leader in the supply of spinning machinery. Today it represents the textile division of Camozzi Group that combines the historical competence on fibres preparation and spinning process with the most advanced technologies. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Cristian Locatelli, General Manager of Marzoli, speaks about the Italian textile industry’s strengths, how Marzoli’s machines are adapting to the increasingly digitised world and the latest innovations it is focused on.
What gives the Italian textile machinery industry an edge over world machinery market? Where does Italy rank in the world?
Made in Italy is and has always been synonymous of excellence and quality. Reliance on Italian machinery suppliers means relying on a partner with great competence and superior technical skills. Therefore, Italy is among the leading textile machinery manufacturers, and ranks fourth after China, Germany and Japan. ACIMIT is the association who represents the Italians textile machinery manufacturers for over 75 years.
Which of your machines has the greatest demand?
With over 300 installations every year, Marzoli Roving Frame is our flagship product. Ever since the conception of our market-leading roving frame, we never stopped to search for innovative ways to further improve our outstanding technology, offering to our customers the most advanced solutions, as well as our latest innovations, to excel in productivity, efficiency, and versatility.
How big is the market for the ancillary industries related to your machinery?
This is a very big and important market. Marzoli is always focused on high quality components for its machines. To assure high efficiency levels, we rely on certified suppliers, and focus on long terms relationships.
How do you see the major trends that you witnessed during Covid-19 in the textile machinery sector pan out in 2021?
Consumers are becoming more and more conscious about sustainability, especially the new generations. Millennials are influencing every day the choices of the textile industry. This awareness has grown rapidly especially in the last 15 months. This leads yarn producers and, consequently, textile machinery manufacturers, to develop new solutions that best match these needs.
Searching for new products and new solutions that could meet the demand of consumers to get unique textile products, has led to a drastic increase in the flexibility of the machines and production processes, as well as improvement in the automation, in order to obtain high quality at high production throughput. Digitalisation plays a key role in supporting the development of these trends, optimising the management of the entire process.
Are you looking at the future differently than earlier, especially since brands/retailers have been heavily hit and are likely to cut down on investments?
We are in a disruptive moment, in which the game rules are changing very quickly. Only flexibility and ability to continuously renew ourselves will allow to create new opportunities for us, for our customers and the whole textile sector.
In an increasingly digitised world, how are your machines keeping pace? What new innovations on the anvil?
We, at Marzoli and Camozzi Group strongly believe that the evolution of the industrial world led to developing a global network, an open and intelligent ecosystem capable of incorporating and connecting machinery, generating added value through big data. In the textile sector, this added value takes the form of the ability to constantly monitor the machines’ performance to ensure optimisation of critical parameters and make intelligent and informed business decisions based on constant updated information.
Yarnet and MRM are the two platforms introduced by Marzoli in 2015. Based on AI and Advanced Analytics, aimed at managing the entire spinning mill, they provide detailed information about machine status and maintenance operations. Brain Box is a dedicated concept that helps us to transfer our technical expertise into a fully accessible cloud application continuously.
Moreover, to make cotton analysis smart and simple, customers can rely on Taomapp, an application that introduced a new approach for cotton analysis. Through photos taken by smartphone it can define the trash level of the raw cotton, applying the most advanced adaptive neural networks. This is also done by our online trash analyser device and other smart applications.
Where is the manufacturing/ production done for your machines? What is your installed capacity? How is the demand and supply worked out?
We produce and test our machines and textile solutions in our headquarters, located in the north of Italy. Through local branches located in strategic markets, we better serve our customers, in an effective and timely way. This allows us to adopt a global strategy with a local presence.
What could be your strategy to boost aggregate demand in the machinery sector going ahead?
Reducing operational costs of machines and plant we design and produce, as well as improving the performance of our equipment while reducing waste of raw material, are our daily focus. We think that this is the right strategy to increase the sustainability of the business and thus increase investments in the spinning sector.
What has been your growth story in the last three years?
2019 was a difficult moment for the entire textile machinery sector, due to a marked slowdown in demand in the main markets, mainly due to widespread geopolitical tensions. The sudden advent of the Covid-19 pandemic then worsened an already difficult situation, leading to a sharp slowdown in consumption and consequent further decline in exports.
However, since the beginning of 2021, we are witnessing a recovery in demand. In the first half of 2021, Marzoli recorded an increase in orders income--300 per cent higher compared to the same period of last year, and there are excellent growth prospects for the next 12 months as well.
Which are the sustainable practices followed at your units?
In Marzoli, we are focused on continuous innovation in mechanical regeneration of fibres. For us, developing and adopting green technologies means to carefully balance economic with environmental sustainability. Circularity of fibres, thanks to fabrics regeneration, is creating a synergetic value chain among all the stakeholders. The new paradigm of a circular fibre supply chain will accelerate learning and development of know-how for all participating stakeholders pushing innovation and opening up to new potentials.
Did you participate in ITMA this year? If yes, what were the new products you showcased?
Yes, and we were very happy to return and participate in exhibitions after more than a year of lockdown, starting again with ITMA, the most important exhibition in the Asian market. ITMA has been the opportunity to highlight the importance of sustainability for Marzoli, always focused on continuous innovation in the mechanical regeneration of textile fibres.
Marzoli has also shown its innovative solutions for the nonwoven sector. Through deep experience and technological knowledge in fibre preparation, we can offer customised lines based on the specific customer’s needs.
A Marzoli excellence promoted at ITMA is the great expertise in developing advanced digital technologies which together create smart solutions for predictive maintenance, remote control and plant management.
What are the competitive advantages of Marzoli over some of the other leading textile machinery companies in terms of quality, speed of delivery, innovation, any other aspect?
Quality. Competence. High tailoring capabilities. These are the strengths of Made in Italy, that Marzoli has developed in over 170 years, thanks to its experience and competence in fibre preparation and the tenacity and resoluteness of a renewed generation of engineers, sales, and managers. Therefore, we like calling ourselves “The spinning boutique”.
