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Interview with Mr Thomas Waldmann

Mr Thomas Waldmann
Mr Thomas Waldmann
MD
VDMA Textile Machinery Association
VDMA Textile Machinery Association

On the top of the agenda is securing free world trade by strengthening the WTO..
VDMA, Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau - German Engineering Federation, is one of the key association service providers in Europe and offers the largest engineering industry network in Europe. It represents 3,000 SMEs in the engineering industry, making it one of the largest and most important industrial associations in Europe. VDMA covers the entire process chain - everything from components and plant manufacturers, system suppliers and system integrators through to service providers and reflects the varied customer-supplier relations all along the value adding chain, permitting both industry-specific and intra-industry cooperation. Textile Machinery wing of VDMA represents 125 vital German textile machinery producers. With a 90% share of exports on an average, the branch is internationally leading amongst German Engineering. The branch occupies ~ 800.000 employees and generates a turnover of more then 170 billion euros. Mr Thomas Waldmann is Managing Director of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association. Appearing on Face2Face, in a talk with Sr Editor & Correspondent- Ms Madhu Soni, Mr Waldmann highlights key happenings of year 2010 in textile machinery arena and ticks on key lessons to remember.

Willkommen, Mr Waldmann! Please tell us how VDMA functions.

The largest part of the member companies are medium-sized businesses. The main target is to represent the interests of these companies towards a variety of addressees like governments, national and international authorities, exhibition corporations, organisations, research institutes and service providers.

Networking is an important aspect. Besides their decision-making function, the different committees of the VDMA Textile Machinery association, namely the Executive Board, the Technical Advisory Board, the Fair and Marketing Committee, as well as the newly founded regular China Management Meeting are exclusive panels for the exchange of experiences. In addition the association offers member companies numerous events concerning different topics.

For a single company it is hard to assert itself towards all the groups I mentioned before but with joined forces within the VDMA network the member companies have a powerful voice. In view of exhibitions for instance, the VDMA textile machinery association is a strong partner whose substantial arguments count for the trade fair companies around the world.

 

In recap story of year 2010, what points can be considered as morals to remember? With what peculiarities and trends would global textile machinery market step in New Year and bear them through?

To remember is definitely the steady recovery of the textile machinery business in 2010. In 2008 and 2009, the companies of this branch had to accept a historical slump with its consequences on production and export. In the first three quarters of 2010 the German exports of textile machinery increased by 50 % compared with the respective period in 2009 and reached a volume of 1.9 billion Euros. The trends for 2011 and the years to come do mainly depend on the challenges of the customer industries – and a major challenge is to keep costs under control. The higher prices for raw materials are obviously worrisome signs for textile manufacturers. Sustainable textile production in terms of efficiency in energy, material and resources will be a major issue in the time ahead not just because of ecological aspects but because of hard economic facts.

Germany-made are competent on technology & innovation front. For sure, R&D is pillar to this recognition. Isn't it? Can you provide us key figures on it?

Innovation capability is the mainstay of the German textile machinery industry and is essential to be the decisive step ahead of competitors. Innovation requires high investments in R&D as well as highly skilled engineers. The R&D ratio in other words the percentage of the German textile machinery industries total sales devoted to R&D expenditures are well above 4 % while the average R&D ratio of the whole German machinery industry is between 3 and 4 %.

The biggest part of the R&D expenditure is for internal research and development. Co-operations with customers are increasing. In addition, community research gives impetus.

Counterfeiting is one of the major concerns for your industry. What initiatives has VDMA devised to fight out this issue?

VDMA provides member companies active support in their fight against product pirates. Two years ago the VDMA working group product and know protection was founded, contact point for member companies regarding technical solutions and services against product piracy. These services are complemented by the publications and guidelines of the legal department of VDMA.

The VDMA Textile Machinery Association made intellectual property rights a subject of Asia’s leading textile machinery exhibition, ITMA Asia + CITME. On the initiative of VDMA the product piracy prevention regulation introduced by VDMA in Munich for the ITMA 2007 has been incorporated into the exhibition regulations for the ITMA Asia + CITME, too.

As India emerges to be a key economy, what are your association’s plans to help your members capitalize on it?

We are offering platforms that bring Indian textile manufacturers and German Texile machinery companies together. In 2010 the Conference on German Technology for Indian technical textiles that VDMA organised together with FICCI provided an excellent opportunity for the leading Indian industry community to exchange knowledge on the latest technological developments which are on course in the global arena of textiles. Representatives from 18 companies, members of our VDMA textile machinery association, presented information and know-how on new developments of their product range in order to support the Indian textile sector in achieving sustainable competitive advantages.

The VDMA liaison office in India promotes the activities of the VDMA member companies in India. The nodal office is in Kolkata with regional offices at New Delhi / Noida and Bangalore. E.g.:

- Furnishing of information about the complete product program of the German Textile Machinery Industry to assist Indian companies to identify right partners for mutual business relationship - Providing information on market trends, prospects, future development, new projects and tenders, - Facilitating, Tie-Up / Joint Ventures / Collaborations between German and Indian companies for mutual benefit.

Is there need of any re-work in prevailing trade policies by EU, which may help German textile machinery to reposition itself at best?

Free trade is definitely for the good of the German textile machinery business. The protectionist tendencies that emerge since the outbreak of the financial crisis are obstacles for future growth.

The European policy should actively support the position of the capital goods industry in Europe. On the top of the agenda is securing free world trade by strengthening the WTO (priority for a successful conclusion of the Doha Round, focusing trade policy on a multilateral system).

Few months ago, through our news column, we have come to know about establishment of VDMA’s Composite Technology Network. Please apprise us the developments therein and its functions.

The VDMA Composite Technology Network brings together companies from different machinery sectors involved in the production and processing of composites. The objectives are to strengthen the network among them and to position the machinery building industry as expertise partner for the subject composites. On the agenda are topics like markets and customers, process chains, technique and research as well as trade fairs. About 70 companies attended the December meeting in Frankfurt. For the first time the machinery business is pooling forces in this emerging segment and is offering a platform for all parties involved.

‘Sustainability’ is governing commercial minds these days. When innovation capability is the mainstay of the German textile machinery industry, what level of encouragement VDMA gives to this aspect? How are talent and skill encouraged at VDMA?

Highly skilled engineers are indeed the keys to innovation and therefore to successful business. With the Walter Reiners-Stiftung (foundation) the VDMA Textile Machinery Association is actively engaged in promoting junior engineers. Each year, the foundation provides an incentive for top performers by granting two promotion prizes for dissertations and master/diploma thesis as well as one creativity prize for seminar papers. Students regularly gain an insight into practice with excursions to member companies and to the leading textile exhibition ITMA, which are financially supported by the foundation. Particularly high-performance students from major German universities are supported by scholarships.

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Published on: 24/01/2011

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.