A continuing squeeze on margins due to the impact of high exchange rates and raw material cost pressures in the UK resulted in Chapelthorpe Group’s Drake polypropylene fibre operation recording a loss for the first time, in the year up to March 2001.

"The reorganisation of our production facilities in the UK, with the majority of production now being concentrated at one site, produced significant savings, but these were not sufficient to offset cost pressures outside our control," said Brian Leckie chief executive of Chapelthorpe.

"Such is the severity of domestic conditions that our two UK based competitors in the supply of coloured polypropylene fibre have ceased trading and we are now the sole remaining UK supplier of this product," he added.

"Our Austrian company, Asota, has continued to perform very well, making a significant contribution to the division’s profitability. Most of Asota’s business is generated within the Euro-zone and not, therefore, negatively impacted by the strength of sterling.

The group’s fibres operation based in Martinsville, Virginia has been one of its major success stories over the past five years, having developed, from a standing start, into the number one supplier of coloured polypropylene staple fibre in the US.

"We built on our success by acquiring the staple fibre business of American Fibers and Yarns Company in July 2000, and this business has now been fully integrated into our Martinsville facility," said Mr Leckie. "This strategic acquisition positions us as the leading supplier of coloured polypropylene fibre, used by every US automotive manufacturer and we remain excited about the opportunities that this brings. Operating in a highly technical, demanding market and with a strong order book, we expect to see further significant growth in turnover in the current year."

Plans to develop new business for two new bulked continuous filament lines, however, did not proceed as anticipated.

"Despite agreeing a contract to supply yarn to a major customer in the rugs business, that company subsequently withdrew abruptly and totally from the sector, and as a result, we were unable to generate sufficient alternative business during the year to cover the revenue shortfall.

Turnover for Chapelthorpe’s fibre operations increased by 33.9% to £82.1m (2000: £61.3m), but operating profit fell by 13.6% to £3.8m (2000: £4.4m).

£22 million fraud at SSL Healthcare

Honorary president of SSL International Norman Stoller launched a bitter attack on its recently-dismissed chief executive at the company’s recent AGM in Cheshire.

Mr Stoller is quoted in The Guardian newspaper as saying the actions of the CEO and other trusted colleagues were behind £22 million worth of false sales invoices that were uncovered earlier this year following an internal investigation. This found that profits and sales had been overstated in 1999 and 2000 and details were passed on to the Serious Crime Squad.

SSL is a major buyer of nonwovens, its Medical Products Division producing, among other things, a wide range of wound management and compression therapy and continence care products. The group’s most famous products are perhaps Durex condoms, Marigold rubber gloves and Scholl sandals.

Mr Stoller, whose father founded Seton Healthcare which became SSL on merging with Scholl, described the former-CEO as "like a son to me"

"That the man I trust above all others should have orchestrated this conspiracy is a very bitter pill," he said. "This is the first time in over 46 years that, I am sorry to say, I have very little pride in this company."

Mr Stoller controls more than five million shares in SSL, and said he would like to know what, if any, role the company's finance director had had in the affair and whether the company’s auditors, should have detected the fraud.

Chairman Stuart Wallis said that a full investigation was being carried out and a file had been passed to the serious fraud office. He said he could not comment on the involvement of individuals.

He added that a complex fraud appeared to have taken place over a long period and there had been collusion between a number of people which had made it difficult to spot.

Forming and finishing

Voith Fabrics Advanced Products is achieving success in the nonwovens manufacturing sector with what is itself a form of nonwoven – the company’s composite porous membrane.

The award-winning product is composed of a machine direction tension-bearing flexible monofilament, multifilament or spun yarns arranged in a parallel array. These are encapsulated in a polymeric sheet of matric material which contains vertically disposed patterns of holes.

The membrane was developed primarily to replace heavy woven structures as a key component in paper machine clothing, and in particular, press felts, but now other uses are being discovered, such as its use as a filter medium, as the carcass for sophisticated impermeable belting, a unique conveyor for lightweight, sensitive materials, and as a forming belt for wet and drylaid nonwovens.

Speaking at the recent High Performance Textiles Conference in Bolton, UK, the company’s Ian Sayer explained that it is already being used by meltblown and spunlace nonwovens manufacturers as a result of its ability to impart surface patterns on the webs as they are laid.

Full story in Nonwovens Report International’s September edition.

Freudenberg sells UK abrasives business

Freudenberg Vliesstoffe KG of Weinheim, Germany has sold its abrasives business interests to sia Abrasives Holding AG, Frauenfeld, Switzerland., effective as of 30^th July 2001

The business unit, which develops, produces and sells abrasive materials under the trade name of Fibral, is located in Greetland, Halifax, UK. A turnover of around Euro 18 million was achieved in 2000 with a work force of 116.

The sale includes all buildings, production plants and equipment belonging to the Fibral business. Other Divisions, like Hygiene/Medical including Adsorptive, Interlinings and Filter, will not be affected by the change.

With the Fibral acquisition, the sia Group becomes the third largest producer of abrasives in the world.

July 17th

TTL buy back

Technische Textilien Lörrach (TTL) has been bought back from the Swedish Nordifa Group by its managing director Manfred Jaehn and his family.

Mr Jahen explained that Nordifa acquired TTL four years ago and cut back the company considerably. Nordifa then had a turbulent period itself and several months ago announced its intention to sell all subsidiaries. This has led to a period of uncertainty for TTL, which has now been solved by the change of ownership.

The core business of TTL continues to be the development and production of filter madia for industrial dust collectors. The company, based in Lörrach, Germany, is on eof the leading manufacturers for this market in Europea, and in addition produces needlefelts for various technical applications. Turnover is around DM 20 million, 50% achieved through exports.

Mr Jaehn willl now lead the company with his son Roland and Thomas Lais.

July 11th

On closer inspection

Massen, based in Konstanz southern Germay, is already achieving notable success with its Nonwovens Inspector (NWI) web inspection system profiled in the June edition of Nonwovens Report International.

So far, the company has supplied systems to Colbond and Libeltex in Germany, as well as to Huyck in Austria (see feature in NRI June edition).

July 10th

K-C goes professional

Kimberly-Clark Corporation has changed the name of its Away From Home Sector to Kimberly-Clark Professional, in order to "more accurately reflect the core values of the business unit."

Products sold by Kimberly-Clark Professional include hand towel and toilet tissue products, skin care and wiping systems for business environments including office buildings, healthcare facilities, supermarkets and other retail and food service environments, hotels, manufacturing and food processing plants.

July 8th

Freudenberg's climate change nonwovens

Continuing in its drive towards conventional textile markets following the introduction of Evolon, Freudenberg has now partnered with Frisby Technologies to develop Comfortemp Nonwovens, which are poised for full-scale production.

Frisby is hailing them as its "most significant new product introduction since the top-selling line of Comfortemp foam materials".

Comfortemp materials contain Frisby’s proprietary thermal additive that automatically absorbs, stores and releases heat as needed to maintain a balanced temperature.

"We view Frisby’s dynamic climate control technology as an excellent platform from which Freudenberg will maintain technological leadership in the nonwoven market and build upon our status as the market share leader," said Freidhelm Brandau, division leader of interlinings of the Freudenberg Nonwoven Group. "There is no question that interactive and adaptive materials like Comfortemp Nonwovens will play a significant role in the future. Partnering with a leader like Frisby Technologies gives us the opportunity to have a significant and immediate impact on the textile industry."

This patent-pending nonwoven material was developed in collaboration and has applications in insulation and linings for apparel, footwear, bedding and home furnishings.

Consumer products containing the new material may be available as early as late 2001 through a limited number of launch customers, with wide availability expected for the Fall/Winter 2002 season.

June 29th

Habasit acquisition

Switzerland’s Habasit has acquired a majority share in Charles Walker Holdings, of Bingley, UK.

Both are suppliers of conveyor and transmission belting and the UK operation will continue with a separate sales fore under the current management which includes chairman Charles Walker and MD Mark Wilcock.

Habasit will also provide additional resources to develop the Charles Walker operation.

The Swiss company achieved sales of Sfr 407 million last year, up 15% on the Sfr 356 million achieved in 1999.

June 26th

Acordis and Lenzing deal under scrutiny

The European Commission is to launch an in-depth investigation of plans by Acordis and CVC Capital Partners Group to gain control of the Austrian fibre company Lenzing.

"Since CVC already controls Acordis, a company active in the same sector, the Commission’s initial investigation has identified a number of markets where the merger would raise serious concerns," the Commission said in announcing the four-month investigation.

Acordis makes man-made fibres and materials for industrial and medical applications, while Lenzing markets and makes man-made cellulose fibres. CVC is located in Jersey, a British dependency, and the United States but has subsidiaries around the word, the Commission said.

The Commission investigation is focusing on potential high shares in the markets for viscose staple fibres, lyocell and lyocell production technology, used for textile and nonwoven applications, such as wipes and medical and hygiene products.

PrimaLoft European expansion

Albany International Corp, manufacturer of PrimaLoft, ‘the down alternative’, has appointed Alessandro Raimondi as its new sales representative for Europe.

Based in Milan, Mr Raimondi will be responsible for developing new PrimaLoft customers and expanding existing business in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.

His appointment comes as European demand for PrimaLoft increases, and is in advance of the November 2001 opening of its new manufacturing facility in Marghera, Italy.

Pakistan call for duty change

Pakistan’s National Tariff Commission (NTC) is to conduct an investigation into alleged anomalies in customs duties levied on sanitary napkins and their raw materials.

This follows a complaint received from PAN Industries that both finished products and raw materials are subject to the same 35% rate of duty, that is, 35%.

The company is therefore calling for the abolition of duty on kraft bleached wood pulp, thermobonded nonwovens, perforated film, polyethylene film, hot melt adhesive and siliconised paper.

June 25th

Europe out in front

European nonwovens growth in 2000 far exceeded that of North America or Japan, according to EDANA, the Brussels-based industry association.

In terms of tonnage, the climb was equal to 12.7% at 1,026,900 tonnes, and 10.8% in square metres, to 25,771.4 million m².

Production has risen consistently from 1983, when it stood at just 200,000 tonnes.

North America’s growth was just 4% and that of Japan 1.6%.

The value of the European industry is put at around EURO 4,100 and the industry now employs around 16,000 people.

June 21st

Perfojet pursues complete systems

Rieter Perfojet has struck up a deal which allows it to now manufacture Metso (formerly Valmet Honeycomb) driers within Europe.

The move is significant as the company competes with Germany’s Fleissner – the acknowledged forerunner in drying technology – in the hydroentanglement (spunlace) machinery sector.

Perfojet had a head start and has sold many more spunlace systems than Fleissner, but the latter has invested heavily in its AquaJet system and key moves now for both companies appear to be in developing advanced finishing techniques and in the linking together of spunbonding and spunlacing systems in one line.

"Perfojet started several years ago with spunbond," said Rieter CEO Irwin StolLer at a press conference in Zurich this week, "and our goal now is to combine the spunlace and spunbond technologies.

"To this end, we are currently working with a famous nonwovens roll goods producers and see a lot of potential in combining these two technologies. Unfortunately, at the moment, this market is rather subdued, but we stil intend to do more."

Mr Stoller’s view, in retrospect, of the purchase by Rieter of the then-ICBT Perfojet, was revealing.

"A year before we acquired Perfojet 12 months ago, we believed that nonwovens was a terrifc business with constant year-on-year growth," he siad. "Now, however, we have learned that it is cyclical, but at the same time, there is a lot of substitution (of other textiles by nonwovens) going on, so we have to be a part of that technology.

"After roll goods, many people are now interested in further finishing processes and we intend to make an acquisition in this area in the near future," he added.

June 17th

Card service for Crosrol

Crosrol UK is a new company formed to provide the many users of Crosrol cards, blowrooms and filters with a dedicated spare parts and technical support service, following the purchase of the assets of Crosrol Ltd from the receivers.

These include all machinery component and assembly design drawings, patents and design rights, all manufacturing know-how, all customer, supplier and machine records, all master machine manuals and all spare part stocks

Additionally, the complete team of Crosrol Ltd staff providing user support has transferred to Crosrol UK Ltd. It will provide genuine Crosrol spare parts, product technical upgrades, and technical service that will maintain and improve the performance of Crosrol machines.

The new company will not actually manufacture cards, blowroom machines or filters and has no liability for machines previously supplied by Crosrol Ltd.

Information can be found via the web site www.crosrol.co.uk.

June 15th

Texon continues to cut costs

Excluding its acquisition of Foss Manufacturing last July, Texon’s sales for the first three months of 2001 were down 6% on the comparative period of 2000, and the principal reason, was lower sales of nonwoven insoles.

Texon, the largest manufacturer of structural materials for footwear, headquartered in Leicester, UK, had first quarter sales of £37.2 million and made profits of £3 million.

As a result of the Foss acquisition, sales of stiffeners increased by 32%, but excluding it, were up just 1%.

Overall, sales in Asia and the Americas were 10% and 23% higher respectively, but fell by 3% in Europe.

The acquisitions made by Texon were said by chief executive Peter Selkirk to not generate as high a gross profit margin as the company’s original materials business and the company continues with a cost-reduction programme throughout its operations.

June 13th

Ahlstrom moves out of packaging

In line with its intention of concentrating on its core fibre and nonwovens businesses following the purchase of Dexter’s nonwovens operations last year, Ahlstrom Group has sold its Åkerlund & Rausing packaging operations.

Å & R will become part of a new company with Amcor Limited, headquartered in Australia, and Danisco A/S, headquartered in Denmark. The new company will be the European leader in flexible packaging.

Ahlstrom will receive EUR 66.9 million for the operation, as well as an 8% share of the new company, with an option to sell this holding at a later date.

The Tecno Jolly plant in Italy and the Kuban plant in Russia will continue as separate entities under the ownership of Ahlstrom. Amcor will have an option to acquire the Italian business within an agreed period.

June 12th

Hot water worker

A wearable laminate that holds water and then slowly releases it to keep the body cool will be launched by 3M following its deal with US company AquaTex Industries, of Huntsville, Alabama, which developed the material and sold it as Hydroweave.

3M has obtained the rights to the exclusive production and sale of the three-layer sandwich of microporous polyurethane film, which lies next to the skin and conducts heat, a nonwoven water-absorbent layer blended with a non-absorbent fibre, which holds the water, and a top shell of a breathable fabric, which allows water vapour to escape and cool the wearer.

Clothing made with the material is first drenched in water for five minutes, allowing a vest or jacket, for instance, to become completely saturated, wrung out to remove excess water and then towelled dry on the inside.

A vest made with the laminate is said to allow wearers to work 17% longer than those working without the vest.

The primary market for the laminate is in industries whose employees work in extreme heat such as metal or glass foundries. But runners and bicycle riders have also purchased clothing made with the fabric.

Emtex of Chelsea, Massachusetts is, at the moment, the sole manufacturer of the material, while Heat Relief International of Cleveland, Ohio is its largest purchaser.

June 8th

Integrated wet-wipes

Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC) - one of the largest manufacturers of converting and packaging machinery employing 1,750 people worldwide – has completed its acquisition of the intellectual property of Atlas Valmet Splicer Unwinds.

These have been purchased from Valmet General of Lancashire, UK, and will continue to be built in the UK at the PCMC Special Products Division’s plant in Plymouth.

"We are excited to give our nonwovens customers a complete solution for producing wet wipes," said PCMC’s vice-president for business development and special products Mark Gillis. "We now have the ability to couple these flying splice unwinds with our Neptune wet wipes machines to provide a fully-integrated, high-speed line."

"Our customers’ productivity will be enhanced with this acquisition," promised European sales manager Sigmund Casper. "We can provide solutions for auto splice integration onnew and existing machines. Other great options include narrow and wide web applications, accurate tension control, shaft or shaftless operation and the ability to provide fully automatic lap or butt ssplice."

Both the Neptune and Atlas Valmet Splice Unwinds have the benefit of several years of proven, in-field operation, and PCMC intends to use the new technology on a variety of machines and applications.

PCMC’s latest introduction, the RX300, is a modular system for the production of interfolded and non-interfolded wipes.

In addition, the company engineers the Genesis and Gemini baby diaper machines for high volume, efficient production, and systems for wet wipes and feminine hygiene products.

PCMC’s Pace 2000 AB adult brief machines produce adult incontinence products with exclusive, patented features.

As part of the company’s total systems capabilities, it also offers packaging and bundling equipment, rewinders for moistened wipes, fabric softeners and polishing cloths, embossers, adhesive seamers, heat sealing units, laminators and printing presses.

June 7th

E-business goes belly-up

Having built up a claimed base of 12,000 registered members, ETEXX, an online e-business portal for the European textile marketplace, is to close down.

"After laying the foundations with what seemed almost unlimited energy, it is all the more painful for us to find support absent from within today’s unfavorable financial markets," said a company spokesperson. "Lack of available financing has forced us to halt further development of the ETEXX platform, dashing our hopes of becoming a provider of e-business solutions for the clothing and textile industry."

In addition to its substantial membership, the site has·250 permanent exhibitors,· 13,000 constantly updated fabric references and trimmings, interactive Trends Forums and a constantly growing interactive audience.

The current version of the site will not be renewed after July 30th.

June 6th

New recycling venture

A new carpet recyling plant is currently being built on an 80,000-square-foot site in Knowsley, Merseyside UK.

The £1.5 million project is being led by WRACE Technology in collaboration with partners from the nonwoven and carpet industries including Heckmondwike FB, Ryalux, Interface, Dutton Carpets, Stalwart Dyeing, Leigh Spinners, Penthouse Carpets, William Pownalls, Westex, Rawsons and Burmatex.

The operation will be the first of its type in the UK and a significant aspect is the ability to process materials to which latex backing has been applied.

The new company formed for the operation will be known as WM Fibres Ltd. The plant is currently being built and the equipment is scheduled to be commissioned in Autumn 2001.

It is currently seeking additional sources of nonwoven and textile wastes for reprocessing and interested parties can contact David Ellison on +44 151 546 8403.

Full details in the July edition of Nonwovens Report International

June 5th

New head of BBA Nonwovens

BBA Group has appointed Ross McMillan chief executive of its Nonwovens Division, with effect from 1st June 2001.

He will initially report to George Cartwright, who intends to retire during 2002.

Mr McMillan became president and CEO of ICI Acrylics in 1996 and following its sale to the INEOS Group became president at INEOS Acrylics.

BBA has denied reports in UK newspapers that it is to sell its nonwoven division.

The company’s shares rocketed recently following a report in the Sunday Telegraph that the company was planning to hive off the business in order to expand its aviation interests.

A further report in the Financial Times seemed to add weight to the story, but Roy McGlone said that no sale was imminent and he had no idea where the story came from, or the quoted price of its worth as $850 million.

BBA Group’s financial advisers, however, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, have examined a sale of the business, and although nothing has been decided, it has not been ruled out.