Interview with Mr Gerben Meursing

Mr Gerben Meursing
Managing Director, Commerce
AVEBE [Commerce]

AVEBE is a conglomerate engaged in starch business, marking its presence in more than 20 countries on the globe. The group creates and markets starch based solutions, and has two organisational units, AVEBE COMMERCE and AVEBE OPERATIONS. AVEBE OPERATIONS is responsible for the internal supply chain and consists of Manufacturing, Logistics, Maintenance, and Purchasing. AVEBE COMMERCE is responsible for the sales, marketing and innovation of starch based solutions for customers in the various markets of Food, Feed, Paper, Building, Adhesives, Textile and Specialties. AVEBE TEXTILE markets an extensive range of starch based products and chemicals widely used in the textile industry for weaving, printing and finishing textiles. Positioned as Managing Director, Mr Gerben Meursing is at the helm of management of AVEBE COMMERCE. Born on August10, 1958, Mr Meursing has done his faculty of medicine from Free University Amsterdem. He completed his Masters in Business Administration in 1988, from Erasmus University-Rotterdam. In 1999, he started his career with AVEBE as the MD for Glucona BV, and has successfully led various division of AVEBE on the same post, until 2006. In 2006, Mr Meursing took the charge as Managing Director for AVEBE group’s operational unit AVEBE COMMERCE. Prior to his professional career with AVEBE, he has worked for Gist-brocades / DSM for 12 years. In the interview by Face2Face team, Mr Meursing shares about the future trends of Dyes & Textile Chemicals, and how has the group shaped up on the textile horizon while safeguarding environment.

How has AVEBE Group shaped up on the textile horizon? Can we know more about its markets and clientele?

AVEBE Group has a long history in textile chemicals. For more than 50 years we have been supplying starch based textile agents world wide. Our market focus is now on sizing agents for the markets in Europe, Middle East and Asian Pacific Region. Our sizing agents are specifically for spun yarn, made from cotton and polyester/cotton. We have varying viscosity grades, so we offer products for the coarse yarns (denim) to the fine yarns (shirting). We aim for the upper end of the market, since these companies need products with high and constant quality.

In marketplace competition, how does AVEBE 'fight it out'?

"With product quality, customer process knowledge, and innovation.Starch based sizing agents are often locally available. However, we take pride for producing high and constant quality products. Starch, being a natural compound, has variation in characteristics. But, AVEBE has a good control over modification processes and raw material supply, so we guarantee constant quality in products. This makes it possible for our customers to depend on our products and also optimises processes and recipes as well. This is important especially because the demands of customers are also rising higher."

Any forecast on future trends of Dyes & Textile Chemicals?

"Environment is becoming a concerning issue world wide. This will be positive for our starch based sizing agents, since they are from a renewable resource. For this reason, we expect that our products will be favoured over synthetic sizing agent, like PVA and polyacrylates.Besides environment, the availability of raw materials like cotton, oil, and starch will have its impact on the price levels in the industry. The increased production in the rising countries and consumptions of the emerging economies like India and China will also have its effects.Starch prices go up on the short term due to strong increase in the production of bio-ethanol. It will take some years before the market is stabilised, then a final price level will be reached."

With markets being unpredictable how does AVEBE Textiles’ R&D division come up with trumps?

"We are constantly improving the technical skills of our people in the field. This way they can advice our customers for the best practice, and support them in utilising our products in the best manner. We try to share the knowledge we gather world wide, using ICT currently available.AVEBE is even involved in adapting the raw material, the potato itself. By a selective breeding program we managed to find a potato that only grows amylopectin and no amylose. Textile sizing agents based on the amylopectin starch have shown improved functionality in the application. This means they can compete with the expensive and oil-consuming synthetic sizing agents. This is certainly in the favour of environmental improvement."

How does your company address environmental issues while epitomizing dictum “Innovation by nature”?

The amylopectin starch is a typical example of this. This type of starch needs less chemical modification to achieve the same or better functionality. Our products are typically renewable resources. And, with the new line of amylopectin starch based derivatives, we are able to replace (sometimes partly) synthetics; a huge advantage speaking about the environment.

Adding to its textile product list, what new products are likely to be introduced by AVEBE Group?

Our products based on amylopectin starch are now being introduced into the market. We gave them the name extension of SPR, which means, Synthetic Polymer Replacer, so this shows our confidence in these products.

Published on: 14/05/2007

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.