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Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment opens new Service Center in Dalton, GA, USA

• By  Textile Excellence
• July 02, 2015

The Segment Manmade Fibers of the Swiss Technology group Oerlikon will be opening an additional Service Center in Dalton, GA – the heart of the American carpet industry. The official opening will take place on August 13, 2015. “Apart from our location in Charlotte, which is in its 50th establishment year, we now want to be even closer to our customers and support them as an efficient, quickly-responding and competent partner. The regional and comprehensive expansion of our services is part of our declared growth strategy in the customer services business”, explains Marcel Bornheim, Head of Customer Services of Oerlikon Segments Manmade Fibers.

The new Service Center in Dalton will offer extensive services to all customers of Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag. First of all the experienced employees will be working in Dalton, especially for BCF carpet yarn plants, but also for technology solutions in the filament spinning and texturing area, as well as high-precision metering pumps. The main focus is on a quick and simple supply of original parts in a new, attractive shop, as well as component repairs with most modern machine equipment in the new workshop and a local, competent customer support and advisory service.

Next to Charlotte, NC, which is approx. 400 km away, Dalton was selected for strategic reasons, as a new location within the scope of the regional Customer Services expansion to increase customer value. The town is situated in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Western Georgia and is known as the “Carpet Capital of the World”. With Mohawk Industries, Shaw Industries, Engineered Floors and Beaulieu of America you have the largest and most significant carpet producers of the world at home in the region north of Atlanta. As the market leader with a market share of more than 80% worldwide, Oerlikon Neumag has installed several hundred positions of most modern BCF technology in this region. The local support of these highly efficient and highly utilized large plants, necessitates a closeness to the customer and his production facilities. Short distances are, in this case, often the key to success. “In the new Service Center in Dalton, our aim is to further improve our response times to customer inquiries. We know that our customers in the region will continue to invest in innovations and we want to quickly and effectively support them and help further increase their competitiveness”, explains Chip Hartzog, President, Oerlikon Textile Inc.

Extended service offer

Also all customers of other technology sections from the product portfolio of Oerlikon Neumag and Oerlikon Barmag, can look forward to an extended service offer. The new Service Center in Dalton will coordinate all services in close cooperation with Charlotte and the worldwide service network of the Manmade Fibers Segment and will therefore be able to respond quicker.

Further milestones in the jubilee year

In the jubilee year, the expansion of the service offer of the Manmade Fibers Segment is a further milestone in the now 50-year old history of Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag on the American market. The American market played a dominating part in the global manmade fiber industry half a century ago and also in the late 90s. At the beginning of the century, the filament spinning and the texturing systems for example, more and more moved to Asia, especially to the People’s Republic of China. The focus on specialties, for example, in the area of technical textiles as well as covering the local demand for high quality clothing articles of well-known brand products, further offers a large potential for American producers. However, the leading role on the world market, of the carpet production sector makes the American textile and carpet industry economically attractive in line with the motto: “Quality, not quantity”. In this case innovative technology solutions are necessary, such as the product offerings of Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag.

Growing sales

With now 31 locations in North, Central and South America, the Swiss Technology group Oerlikon is represented on the local markets with all of its four segments: Surface Solutions, Manmade Fibers, Drive Systems and Vacuum. Here the company generated around 15% of the total company turnover with altogether 1 650 employees. Higher turnovers were generated during the past years especially in North America. The positive forecast of the American economy with an expected economic growth of approx. 2.5%, also has further growth potential for Oerlikon and its segments.

Textile Excellence