For KARL MAYER, the new year began with a high-level visit by the Indian Textiles Minister, Dr. K.S. Rao, and his team on January 9. 
He took advantage of his visit to Heimtextil in Frankfurt to make a short trip to nearby Obertshausen for visiting the KARL MAYER plant there.
Dr. Rao and his team were received by Mr. Arno Gärtner, Managing Director, and Mr. Oliver Mathews, the Head of Sales of the Warp Knitting Business Unit, Mr. Bastian Fritsch and Mr. Peter Obrist, Sales Managers of the company, and representatives of the local agent, A.T.E.
Impressed by the modern production processes at KARL MAYER, Dr. Rao said that the machines were of the highest technical calibre, and the company’s innovative products were extremely important for the development of the Indian textile industry.
Expressing his interest in the possibilities of encouraging traditional medium-sized, family-run companies to invest in India, he said this traditional approach really motivated KARL MAYER to become very active in India.
As part of its strategy of manufacturing close to its markets, KARL MAYER has been running its own service subsidiary in Mumbai since 2009. The service operations are being expanded on a regular basis.
On the occasion, Mr. Gärtner explained that India has been an important sales region for the warp preparation machines produced at Obertshausen for some time. Since 2010, demand for new warp knitting machines manufactured by KARL MAYER has increased considerably.
The Managing Director went on to say that this development has made India an 
important growth market for the textile machinery manufacturing company. This positive development has also encouraged it to consider setting up its own production centre in India. Preliminary work on the project is currently underway.
As an important contribution to the continuing process of modernisation in the Indian textile sector, KARL MAYER’s discussion partners expresed happiness over the offer of special incentives such as the Technology Upgrading Fund Scheme put in place by the Indian Textile Ministry.
KARL MAYER – LIBA integration in progress
As announced earlier, KARL MAYER has acquired majority ownership of LIBAMaschinenfabrikGmbH. Integration of the two worldwide leading companies in areas of development, manufacturing and delivery of warp knitting and technical textile machinery has been implemented according to plan.
As a member of the KARL MAYER Group from now on LIBAMaschinenfabrik will be incorporated under the name KARL MAYER LIBATextilmaschinenfabrik GmbH.
In addition, the processes that started at the end of last year to work out “Best of Both Worlds” solutions for products, processes and concepts are progressing well. In the middle of this year, this project will be finalized. In the meantime the business of both parties in terms of products and market approach will be unchanged. All important tasks will be completed as before.
Following completion of the “Best of Both Worlds” projects full integration of LIBA into the KARL MAYER business unit structure will start. This should be finalized at the end of 2015. Customers will then benefit from a strong partner with a unified approach and optimized products and solutions.