Mayer & Cie. (MCT), the Albstadt-based company, opened its Czech subsidiary’s new factory hall at Vsetín on September 8. With a floor area of around 5,000 sq. mtrs., the new production hall is about half as large again as the old building. MCZ, short for Mayer & Cie. Czech Republic, has been a member of the Mayer Group since 2011. Over the past five years, it has made a decisive contribution to the Albstadt-based company’s success story.
“2011, the year in which MCZ became a part of the Mayer Group, was a landmark year for our company,” said Mayer & Cie. Managing Director Benjamin Mayer in his speech at the inauguration of the new building. “We had just recovered from the setbacks of the economic crisis. We then had to set the right course in order to remain competitive in view of the growing competitive pressure.”
An opportunity that arose was to take over the insolvent Czech knitting machine manufacturer Amtek. “That was a risk for our company,” Benjamin Mayer recalls, “because at the time we ourselves had only just emerged from insolvency.”
An important strategic decision
Over the years, the 2011 decision has proved right without the slightest doubt. Initially, only individual assembly groups were transferred to the new production site, but they were joined in 2012 by the first knitting machines. In 2013, only two years after the take-over, one Mayer machine in four was assembled at the Czech works. In 2014, MCZ was quality certified to DIN ISO standards.
The latest sign of this success is the modern company premises just outside the town of Vsetín. MCZ’s 70-plus employees can assemble knitting machines in tried and tested Mayer quality in state-of-the-art conditions.
At present a little over one in three Mayer machines and various assembly groups come from the Czech Republic. S and D line machines account for a large proportion of them. With these knitting machines, Mayer & Cie. serves the mid-range price segment most successfully. The S4 3.2 II and D4 2.2 II, both part of this product range, are the long-established circular knitting machine.
The great popularity of these machines, Benjamin Mayer noted in his speech, showed why the Czech production site was the right decision, especially from the strategic viewpoint. “These machines,” he said, “enable us to keep our competitors at bay in the price-sensitive segment, to raise the barriers for new competitors and to offer new customers an easier entry into the Mayer product range.”
Around 20 employees from the main factory in Albstadt and three Chinese colleagues from Mayer & Cie. in Shanghai celebrated with their Czech colleagues and Vsetín Managing Director Stanislav Stastny the opening of the new works building. Production at the main factory in Albstadt-Tailfingen is, after all, closely linked with the Czech location.
Benjamin Mayer described MCZ as “the most important supplier” of both Mayer & Cie. in Albstadt and Mayer & Cie. China. And not only that: the Czech subsidiary provided the parent company with the leeway it required to serve its established premium segment successfully and develop one innovative new technology after another. That indeed is how the market leader sees itself.
“Mayer & Cie.,” Benjamin Mayer said, “stands for quality, precision, productivity and for innovation. With our present strategic alignment we are well equipped to continue to do justice to our claim to be always one step ahead.”