From the Sector

• "Dibella up" records its first big success

Aalten, "Dibella up" is bearing its first fruits. Since the launch of the recycling concept initiated in August 2020, six tons of sorted laundry items have already been returned to Dibella and converted into new ones by the company in farsighted reuse projects. The customer who has been involved in the project from the very beginning is Lamme Textielbeheer from Nederhorst den Berg. The Dutch textile service provider sees the initiative as an important measure for more appreciation of resources.

Dibella has taken the closed-loop approach of the textile service as a model and has taken a step towards a completely closed cycle with the "Dibella up" project. The system includes unlimited reuse and recycling of the fibre raw materials bound in the textiles. To this end, the company's own textile qualities, which are selected from laundries, are taken back and passed on to selected upcycling projects. Polyester-cotton blended fabrics are processed there into high-quality bags. Pure natural fibre textiles as well as blended fabrics with at least 50 percent cotton are chemically converted into an important raw material for cellulose fibre production, while the remaining polyester is still being thermally recycled for technical reasons.

Six tons of laundry from the Netherlands

Lamme Textielbeheer was immediately enthusiastic about the "Dibella up" initiative. The committed company has been involved in various Dibella sustainability projects for many years and recognises the future-oriented character of the new project. "Our will to cooperate was immediately clear after Dibella's managing director Ralf Hellmann presented the upcycling project, because we see it as an important measure for the prudent use of resources," reports Jan Lamme, managing director of the company of the same name. "Within a very short period of time, we therefore jointly started to take back our discarded, no longer usable old textiles. In this way, we have already been able to return six tonnes of laundry for a new product cycle. This corresponds exactly to our idea of upcycling!". "Dibella provides stable, reusable cartons for shipping," says a delighted Frank David, Lamme's Assistant Operations Manager. "This makes collection much easier for us and we don't have to take any means of transport out of our laundry".

Prepared for the mega-trend of recycling management

Dibella would like to build on the initial joint success and further expand the initiative for a closed textile cycle in the industry. "The awareness of sustainability is high in the textile rental service. But the next mega-trend is already emerging. The future lies in closed-loop recycling. With "Dibella up", we are offering our customers the opportunity to get involved now and make resources usable in the long term. We are happy about every new cooperation partner who appreciates the value of textiles as much as we do".

• "We only promote products that we like and Kornit is offering a line up of technologically advanced equipment that can take our selected customers into the future of textile print on demand.”
• Responding to market needs for textile print on demand

Kornit Digital (Nasdaq: KRNT), a worldwide market leader in digital textile printing technology, continues to expand its market reach through Grup Transilvae partnership.

Founded in 1993 in Cluj, Grup Transilvae later expanded its reach nationally with a move to Bucharest. It has since developed into a complete solutions and services provider following partnerships with key industry manufacturers such as HP, MGI Digital Graphic Technology, Canon, Esko, Caldera, Efi, X-Rite - Pantone and Fotoba International etc. It has also more recently agree to support Matic, Highcon, Xlam, Sefa, Chemica and PlastGrommet. Now the company is increasingly focusing on the textile industry which is why it is partnering with Kornit.

CEO Bogdan Vasilescu explains: "We started with color management solutions, working on demand for Fogra with digitally printed DMI colors on textiles. We have also worked with Mimaki, Roland, Epson and Vutek on various projects including Eurotex Iasi, Zara and Rofobit in Bucharest. Eager to continue our growth spurt in the textile printing industry, we were looking for a trusted partner and Kornit was the obvious choice.”

"The collaboration with Kornit began officially in September and is a natural progression,” Vasilescu adds. “For a number of years, we have been considering ways to improve our offering by moving into textiles in the same way that we did for sign and display, home decor or packaging. We were just waiting for the right partner. We are always looking to collaborate with market leaders and we wanted to work with Kornit to tap into the potential of the print on demand textile market with an extensive textile printing portfolio.”

Grup Transilvae will represent all Kornit’s textile solutions, including Direct to Garment and Direct to Fabric, particularly for T-shirts, activewear, denim, fashion, beachwear, home textiles and fabrics.

Vasilescu continues: “We are looking forward to showing our existing customers how they can take advantage of the Covid 19 accelerated trends in digital print-on-demand and short-run print jobs. We will signpost how they can expand their application range, grow volumes and experience better ROI.”

Vasilescu concludes: “We only promote products that we like and Kornit is offering a line up of technologically advanced equipment that can take our valued customers into the future of textile print on demand.”

Omer Kulka, CMO at Kornit Digital states: “We are delighted to announce another great partnership with a distributor that is as passionate about our products and the textile printing industry as we are. Grup Transilvae has a long history of successfully entering new markets with leading manufacturers. We look forward to a long and happy partnership.”

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, has been recently ranked number 1 in the “industrial chemicals” list published by the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) for driving transparency in their supply chain.

Archroma also entered the Top 50 of companies in IPE’s Green Supply Chain CITI Evaluation, at the 47th position. The evaluation dynamically assesses brands on the environmental management of their supply chains in China.

With a wide array of products used every day, everywhere, the company is committed to operate along the principles of “The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient, enhanced, it’s our nature”. The Archroma team is therefore committed to sourcing safe and sustainable raw materials and intermediates from like-minded partners.

Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO of Archroma, recently delivered a message at the IPE 2020 Green Supply Chain Forum online, and commented: “As industry leader, we have the responsibility to keep on addressing the climate challenge, and to do everything we can together to reduce our impact on the environment. This is where the approach of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs supports us. They encourage us to challenge our suppliers in terms of safety, health and environment, and to go even beyond our own strict policies and processes.”

Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, today announced the release of its third Sustainability Report.

Prepared again in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, and covering Fiscal Year 2019, the report outlines the company’s progress on its priority sustainability topics, such as human health and environmental safety, resource efficiency, sustainable sourcing and product stewardship, as well as diversity & inclusion, and talent management.

All activities described in the report support the 3 pillars of “The Archroma Way to a Sustainable World: Safe, efficient, enhanced. It’s our nature." This approach is the company’s guiding light in challenging the status quo to making its operations and its value chains sustainable.

“As our industries navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, the temptation for some will be to push back on the urgent need to address the climate crisis. We cannot allow that. Because after all, it's our nature”, Heike van de Kerkhof, CEO of Archroma, comments.

The report can be downloaded here.

The Bavarian viscose speciality fibre manufacturer Kelheim Fibres has achieved a leading score in Canopy’s 2020 Hot Button Report. Kelheim Fibres ranks overall among the top 5 producers and was even able to improve their good previous year’s result.

While the company – as in 2019 - is assessed as “low risk" of sourcing from Ancient & Endangered Forests, Kelheim is proud to have invested significantly in “Next Generation Fibre Solutions,” and hopes to reach commercial scale by 2025. Also, highlighted in the report is Kelheim’s increase of the proportion of FSC®-certified fibre.

Kelheim has accepted the recommendation to develop an action plan for continuous improvement of their sustainability: With a certification according to ISO 50001 (energy management), certification according to EMAS (expected at the end of 2020), the application to join ZDHC (Roadmap to Zero) and the newly created position of a sustainability manager, the viscose fibre experts have accomplished a considerable success in a short space of time.

“Canopy’s Hot Button Report not only stands for ethically correct raw material sourcing – it is an overall sustainability indicator for viscose fibre producers.”, so Matthew North, Commercial Director at Kelheim Fibres. “We are proud of our ranking and will follow this path further: Our fibres offer an ecofriendly alternative to synthetic materials. That includes certified sustainable raw material sourcing, resource saving and low-emission production processes as well as the continuous search for improvements and future-oriented solutions.“

An impairment charge has become necessary based on the current status of the new 5 year plan.

(Market Abuse Regulation N° 596/2014)
•    Impairment loss amounting to €80-100 million in the fourth quarter 2020 in the business unit CFM
•    Restructuring program resolved with savings target of more than €100 million until 2023
•    Guidance 2020 for Group sales and operating recurring Group EBIT confirmed
•    Guidance 2020 for net result reduced to minus €130-150 million

In the current status of the 5 year plan, which is at present under preparation, significant deviations have already become apparent today, particularly in the market segments Automotive, Aerospace and Wind Energy in the business unit Composites – Fibers & Materials (CFM). Partially also due to the pandemic, Automotive and Aerospace is developing slower than anticipated in the last 5 year plan. In contrast, business with Wind Energy is growing much stronger than previously planned. These changes in the product mix lead to lower mid-term earnings at CFM compared to the prior 5 year plan. Following these deviations from the last 5 year plan, an event-driven impairment test was undertaken. This results in a non-cash impairment charge amounting to €80-100 million, which will be recorded in the fourth quarter 2020.

The Board of Management of SGL Carbon SE today also resolved the implementation of a restructuring program, with which the Company is targeting savings of more than €100 million until 2023 (compared to the base year 2019). These savings consist of a planned socially compatible reduction in personnel of more than 500 employees and substantial reduction in indirect spend, particularly in the areas of travel, consulting and external services. Costs of approximately €40 million are anticipated for the implementation of this restructuring program. A little more than half of this is expected to be recorded as expenses in the fourth quarter 2020, while the associated cash outflows are mainly forecasted for 2021.

This requires a partial adjustment of the guidance for 2020. The solid operational development in the third quarter 2020 with Group sales between €220 and €230 million and operating recurring EBIT1 between €13 and €15 million (plus approximately €9 million positive one-time effects) is within the framework of our expectations for the full year 2020. However, the Group net result is likely to develop below the prior year level of minus €90 million and reach approximately between minus €130 and €150 million due to the restructuring provisions as well as the impairment charge (prior guidance: improvement to a negative low double-digit million € amount).

With liquidity of €167 million as of September 30, 2020 (compared to €137 million at year-end 2019) and further cash inflows in the fourth quarter 2020 from successfully implemented additional funding measures, the Company’s position is solid. This liquidity is more than sufficient for the payment of the purchase price for SGL Composites USA in the amount of USD 62 million at the end of 2020 as well as the restructuring-related cash outflows expected mainly in 2021. The Company continues to have access to the revolving credit facility (RCF) in the amount of €175 million, which remains undrawn.

The quarterly statement as of September 30, 2020 will be published on November 12, 2020 as scheduled. Further details on the new 5 year plan as well as the guidance on the fiscal year 2021 will be presented with the publication of the Annual Report 2020 on March 25, 2021.

*The use of KPIs in this notification is aligned to the annual report 2019 and the interim report for the first half year 2020. There were no changes to the scope of consolidation or to valuation methods compared to the previous guidance.

•   Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII Printers for Faster, High-Quality Textile Printing

Amsterdam - Mimaki Europe, a leading manufacturer of inkjet printers and cutting systems, announces today that Pakistani textile company, Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd., is leveraging multiple Mimaki Tiger industrial textile printing units to take its business to the next level. As a result of on the outstanding performance and process optimisation delivered by the Mimaki digital printing equipment, the company has been able to adapt to changes in the textile industry and is now projected to reinforce its market position and expand its capabilities in high-quality textile production.

Headquartered in Faisalabad, Punjab province – the second largest textile hub in Pakistan –, Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. mainly serves the high fashion industry and uses its cutting-edge technology to print about 100,000 metres daily. Faced with recent challenges in the global textile market, management at Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. embarked on innovating the company’s business model, shifting from conventional to digital printing. In doing so, the company invested in Mimaki’s advanced industrial textile technology and installed three Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII units. “We were – and still are – experiencing a massive transformation in the printing segment, with brands demanding high quality products delivered within short deadlines. This change in our customers’ requirements urged us to move to digital printing,” says Muhammad Asif, CEO at Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. “Our choice has already proved sound as our brand-new Tiger-1800B MkII printing systems have enabled us to cope with the high standards of the fashion industry in terms of both quality and delivery times. In addition, we have been able to gradually enhance our production processes in a cost-effective way.”

The Tiger-1800B MkII is Mimaki’s flagship industrial volume textile printer, available either in dye sublimation configuration for transfer printing or with reactive ink for direct-to-textile printing. Of the three Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII solutions operating at Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd., two are equipped with reactive inks, enabling the company to directly print onto natural fibres such as cotton and linen, as well as onto manufactured cellulose fibres, including rayon and nylon. The third Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII features sublimation inks serves the ever-growing printed polyester market, allowing the company to strategically diversify its product portfolio.

“There are several features of the Tiger-1800B MkII that benefit our production and our business at large. The MAPS (Mimaki Advanced Pass System), just to name one, prevents banding and colour-shifting to deliver a higher standard of quality, while the NRS (Nozzle Recovery System) provides uninterrupted production, minimising downtime and ensuring superior results. The sticky belt system together with the large-size ink tanks (with a capacity of 10kg) and the high-performance software RIP TxLink3 are some of the other features that make these printers efficient, user-friendly and reliable,” says Asif.

Asif concludes, “Looking at the future, our aim is to set up a print department featuring only Mimaki’s technologies. We are already considering the next steps to make this possible, knowing that we can count on the support of Signtrade, Mimaki’s dealer in the region and our trustworthy partner.”

Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. was founded in 1992 by Muhammad Asif’s father Haji Muhammad Yousaf and his partner Haji Rasheed Ahmad. Established as a dyeing company, Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd. was able to gradually diversify the business over the years to become an advanced textile printing specialist. Today, the company is an established provider to the high fashion industry in Pakistan and on an international level.

“The story of Moti Fabrics is incredibly inspiring. Belonging to a region with such rooted textile printing heritage, the company has been able to embrace a new, challenging business model in order to stay at pace with the changing demand from the textile industry and has succeeded,” comments Ronald van den Broek, General Sales Manager at Mimaki Europe. “Customers like Moti Fabrics make us proud as they demonstrate how our advanced Mimaki Tiger industrial textile series can be the enabling technology for those textile companies planning the shift from conventional to digital printing.”

As reported on August 17, 2020, the Supervisory Board of SGL Carbon SE had appointed Thomas Dippold to CFO and member of the Board of Management of SGL Carbon SE effective December 1, 2020. Fortunately, Mr. Dippold is able to assume office of his mandate as member of the Board of Management of SGL Carbon SE earlier, so that the Supervisory Board of the company has brought forward the appointment to October 15, 2020, also to prepare for the planned assumption of the CFO position.

As previously reported, and effective December 1, 2020, Mr. Dippold is succeeding the long-standing CFO Dr. Michael Majerus, who is resigning from his office effective November 30, 2020 by mutual amicable consent.

As planned, Dr. Stephan Bühler resigned from his office as member of the Board of Management effective October 15, 2020.

Kelheim Fibres has been selected as a finalist for the Sustainability Heroes Award in the category “Sustainable Innovation”. The award is presented by DQS (German Association for Sustainability) and DGQ (German Association for Quality) to pioneers in sustainability and aims to further encourage active involvement in this field.
 
The viscose speciality fibres manufacturer has secured the selection with its innovative plant-based fibres that can substantially contribute to a plastic-free future in absorbent hygiene products such as femcare or incontinence products.

In contrast to other plant-based fibres, viscose fibres can be precisely modified and functionalised during the production process. They can be adapted to meet the exact requirements of the single components of a hygiene product in terms of their liquid management properties (from water repellent to highly absorbent) and so match the performance of synthetic fibres that are still used in the majority of these single-use products.

Whereas today, environmentally conscious consumers must often decide between feeling safe and a clear conscience, the Bavarian fibre experts are actively developing more and more products that do justice to both: Kelheim combines sustainably manufactured and completely biodegradable fibres with the technical performance of synthetic fibres. The aim is to help to reduce the use of crude-oil-based plastics in single-use products and their negative impact on the environment.

Sappi Europe received a platinum score in the latest EcoVadis rating. On of the leading global providers of sustainable woodfibre products and solutions retained its top position from the previous year among the leading one per cent of all companies assessed which exhibit high activity and responsibility with regard to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

• Sappi Europe receives top rating for sustainability
• Unlocking the power of renewable resources to benefit people, communities and the planet

As part of its clear strategic goals in relation to sustainability and environmental protection, Sappi reached a new milestone. A market leader in environmentally friendly packaging and graphic papers received a platinum score in this year’s sustainability rating from EcoVadis, establishing itself as one of the top performers, with a score well above the overall average. The EcoVadis rating covers a total of 21 criteria, which in turn are divided into four general areas: environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.

Encouraging sustainable operations across the entire value chain have been a key part of Sappi’s corporate strategy for many years. Sappi’s entire business model and investments in research and development are based on the use of renewable materials. The environment management approach of the global company includes a variety of strategies designed to improve its ecological footprint. For 2025, Sappi has linked its sustainability targets to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Sappi has long held principles based around People, Planet and Prosperity and with  a heightened focus on seven of the SDG’s they believe they can deliver  real impact and contribute to the global sustainable development agenda.

The platinum rating from EcoVadis demonstrates that Sappi not only talks about sustainability, but actively works towards ensuring it in a very practical way. The whole world is talking about sustainable solutions and looking for alternatives to fossil fuels. Sappi is focused on providing product solutions to the market. A few weeks ago, the market leader presented a number of solutions relating to functional paper packaging as part of its ‘Pro Planet Paper Packaging’ campaign to enable sustainable, high-quality packaging for food and non-food products.

Sappi Europe is extremely proud to have obtained the EcoVadis Platinum rating and while certification and recognition go a long way to helping our work we also acknowledge at Sappi Europe that we are part of a global community that need to continue to strive in all our business areas to create the change needed to help our customers become truly sustainable. The recyclable nature of products derived from woodfibre are essential to creating a more circular economy, where the world’s resources are kept in use longer and more creatively. By responsibly sourcing materials, reducing material waste and emissions , carefully considering product end-of-life, and aiming to use the full potential of trees, we actively promote more sustainable systems explains Sarah Price, Sappi Europe’s Sustainability Manager