FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany — Texcare International 2016 was staged here June 11-15, and textile professionals from around the world had a lot to take in.
The 2016 edition of the World Market for Modern Textile Care was the largest in the trade fair’s 60-year history, officials say.
Messe Frankfurt, the show manager, said a record 15,700 textile services professionals from 112 countries around the world visited the trade fair over the five days.
Texcare International also broke records this year in terms of vendors. A record 319 exhibitors from 28 countries displayed products and services, according to the show operator.
Wolfgang Marzin, president and CEO of Messe Frankfurt, opened the show from the steps of the Galleria, in between Hall 8 and the Hall 9 into which the fair expanded for the first time ever.
“For the first time, we are opening the fair in the middle of the exhibition, because vendors decided to expand their presence here,” Marzin says. “This goes to show that textile care is one of the biggest growth industries in the world.”
60TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
The opening of the trade fair in the Galleria featured something special: a celebration in honor of the event’s 60th anniversary.
The fair started in 1956 as the International Laundry Trade Exhibition, with 164 exhibitors. From 1968 to 1990, it was called the International Laundry and Dry Cleaning Exhibition (IWC). In 1994, the trade fair started using the Texcare name.
Of the original exhibiting companies, nine have attended the fair every four years since its inception.
Representatives from each of the nine—Burnus, Cordes, Clayton, Kannegiesser, Kreussler, Miele, Polymark, Seibt + Kapp, Seitz and Gottlob Stahl—were honored during the anniversary celebration.
“Sixty years ago when the trade fair began, the focus was on automation,” Marzin says. “That automation included labor-saving washers and dryers.”
The brief anniversary celebration concluded with champagne and cake—and Marzin welcoming all to Texcare International 2016.
EXPANDED TRADE FAIR FLOOR
After the opening, attendees got to experience just how big the show was this year. Exhibit space displays reached for the ceiling in Hall 8, and large swaths of Hall 9.
The show obviously has a more European focus, but commercial and on-premises laundry companies with ties to the United States conducted brisk business as well.
Some of the companies with U.S. ties in attendance included Alliance Laundry Systems, Chicago Dryer Co., Colmac Industries, Dexter Laundry, Ecolab, Electrolux, Girbau, Image Laundry Systems, JENSEN, Kannegiesser, Lavatec Laundry Technology, Pellerin Milnor Corp., Whirlpool and Lapauw USA.
The international focus made the trade fair a little easier for Keith Ware, vice president of sales for Lavatec, than what he usually experiences at shows.
“This is my first time here on the supplier side, but I don’t speak German,” says Ware. “I feel a bit out of place, but I answer any questions as they come up.”
Ware and the rest of the exhibitors answered plenty of questions about their equipment and services for the international crowd, because most of the exhibitors showed off new products and systems.
“The ultimate goal here is to show complete automation in the laundry process,” says Phil Hart, president of Kannegiesser USA. “The industry isn’t there, yet. What we’re trying to show here is a process that replicates quality every time.”
Kannegiesser’s attempt to show complete automation of a laundry, from sort to finish, took up a large portion of the expanded Hall 9.
But not all exhibitors went big at Texcare.
“We didn’t bring a big booth,” says Antonella Favaro, marketing activation manager for Electrolux. “Our customers know our products, and we simply wanted to display our novelty items.”
Colmac also had a smaller booth, but it was effective for showing off the company’s boilerless tunnel finisher, according to Mike Harper, vice president of engineering.
“There is a need for small, boilerless models,” he says. “Some of our customers are two steps removed from a laundry. For example, Amazon has a facility with many photo areas to take pictures of models wearing the items. They needed to be able to press them for the models.
“And all of the products we’re showing here are available in the U.S.”
Some exhibitors from the United States don’t have a large presence overseas but were in the market for distributors.
“We’re looking for distributors in Europe,” says Kevin Hietpas, director of sales and marketing for Dexter Laundry. “If we can go home with a couple distributors, it will have been a good show for us.”
Richard Trama, global manager of commercial laundry service for Whirlpool, the parent company of Maytag Commercial Laundry and ADC, was also looking for European distributors.
“We’re looking for a European salesperson who can sell our merchandise,” he says.
Trama also teased what the company has in store for the 2017 Clean Show in Las Vegas.
“Next year, our really new ‘new’ product will be ADC washers,” he says.
New was the focus of the JENSEN Group while in Frankfurt. The company debuted new products, including an ergonomic multi-sort platform and a high-production towel finisher.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in our innovations here,” says Gerda Jank, head of marketing for JENSEN Group. “We have been developing these innovations, and it is here for the laundries, finally.”
Not only were U.S. vendors represented in Frankfurt, some U.S.-based textile services companies worked the trade fair halls as well.
One thing that attracted John Teyssier, director of operations for Virginia Linen Service Inc. in Petersburg, Va., was the fact that there were people and companies on the floor that he didn’t know.
“Unlike in America, where you know so many people at these shows, I don’t know many over here,” Teyssier says. “I can go take a look at the machines. I like the variety of equipment.”
“As you can see on this floor, this is not a low-technology industry,” says Doug Waldman, president of Superior Linen Service in Tulsa, Okla. “It’s a very high-technology industry. The people on this floor represent the knowledge I need.”
TEXCARE FORUM
Knowledge was the focus of the educational side of the trade fair, known as Texcare Forum. Each afternoon during the first four days, two hours of lectures were offered to attendees on a variety of topics.
The first day’s lectures had a training focus, because the growth of the industry is making it difficult for companies to find skilled employees—around the world. Waldman, who is also chairman of the Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA) board, along with President and CEO Joseph Ricci, conducted a lecture on how TRSA is helping companies train up employees.
“I was fascinated by the first presenter’s talk about getting people in the industry [in Germany]. It’s amazing how similar it is to the United States,” says Waldman. “There really is not a government training program for people to come into our industry. It’s an issue; it’s a struggle for us to find individuals and recruit individuals in who have skills.”
Katrin Rasch with the Vocational Training Institute of the University of Cologne shared that training for employment at a laundry needs to become a “career-making concept.”
“We need to have theoretical and practical training,” she says. “Theoretical learning in the school setting and practical in the plant. We also need to make potential employees believe that the training will lead to a career.”
Udo Nagelschmidt, co-founder of the Munsterland Training Center for Textile Cleaning, summed up the day like this: “We can use a lot of machines, but if we don’t have the right people, it won’t work.”
Sunday’s Forum lectures looked at technological advances in materials and growth options, such as processing personal protection equipment (PPE), uniforms and healthcare linens, and marketing a laundry’s sustainability.
“In the next five to 10 years, American healthcare regulations will come over to Europe,” says Sven Schoppe, a consultant with LEO System, located in Germany, as he spoke on quality and hygiene.
Speaking on creating added value with textile innovations, Dr. ir. Henk Gooijer of TKT, the Dutch technical knowledge center, says, “Growth and demand will be met by polysynthetic fiber.”
Monday’s Forum focus continued the look at sustainability of the industry, along with resource efficiency, in a world with a growing population and shrinking resources. Topics covered included water reuse and heat recovery, sustainable fabrics and available sustainability tools.
Gianluca Mainolfi, vice president of the Asia-Pacific and Greater China regions, as well as global marketing, for Ecolab Europe, spoke on sustainability in terms of resource conservation and a competitive advantage for textile services companies.
“Trends tell us that resources will become more scarce,” he says. “They will be less available and more expensive.”
Martin Stokman, business development manager for Laundry Dashboard, based in The Netherlands, talked about using numbers to maximize profitability and resource usage.
“You need business intelligence,” he says. “Technology provides that. You need it on all processes, like real-time information on detergent and energy usage. Soon, all laundries will be 4.0.”
“Laundry 4.0” was the focus of the final day of Texcare Forum, with topics ranging from automation to RFID technological advances.
One of the biggest costs for a laundry is labor, and many automation advances look to lessen that cost.
“Qualified personnel is expensive and difficult to find,” says Gunter Veit, managing director and owner of VEIT Group, as he spoke on the subject. “Automation decreases the level of dependency on skilled personnel and ensures constant quality.”
JENSEN’s Jank presented the “Triple P Approach in Sustainability for Heavy-Duty Laundries.” She says the Triple-P approach looks at people, the planet and profit—in balance.
“Productive working places are safe working places,” she says.
Industry 4.0 concluded with Mathias Schafer, product manager for Kannegiesser, taking a look at what a “Smart Laundry” is.
“It has consistent and continuous workflow with synchronization of data and materials,” he says.
FASHION AND IRON
Texcare International 2016 hosted other events of interest to attendees in the various segments of the textile care industry.
Besides hosting the opening ceremony, the naturally lit, spacious Galleria was the perfect setting for the Fashion Shows that displayed the latest trends in work, protective and professional clothing. Saturday, Sunday and Monday, competitors faced off in ironing competitions at various exhibitor displays throughout the trade fair halls.
Exhibitors and attendees alike said Texcare International 2016 provided good business opportunities and education that will benefit the textile services industry.
Now everyone can rest, make use of the deals and contacts made at the trade fair—and look ahead to what’s in store when Texcare International returns in June 2020.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].