Interview with Alfonso Marra

Last year, forty million metres of fabric were manufactured, a distance equivalent to the earth's circumference. With a plant as big as ten football pitches in Frosinone, customers are spread over 64 countries. There are more than 400 employees. We have a turnover of more than €120 million. One out of three workwear garments in Europe are made using our fabrics, with a colour range of over 4,000 shades. Klopman, a European leader in workwear fabrics is celebrating 50 years of activity and today is one of the major manufacturing companies of central Italy. Klopman's history began in 1967 when the US fabrics businessman Bill Klopman developed the first polyester and cotton blend fabric for workwear to be industrially washed. After laboratory testing, the best blend combination was obtained: 65 per cent polyester and 35 per cent cotton, which is very much in use today.

Klopman serves all the major worldwide companies in numerous sectors from healthcare to pharmaceuticals, hospitality, services and retail, and also the automotive industry, security, military, road services, oil, gas, chemical and petrochemical sectors. One workwear garment out of three in Europe is realised with Klopman fabrics.

Our company represents excellence in the Italian manufacturing industry and operates worldwide. The company's product range is recognised as best-in-class in guaranteeing extremely flexible use, environmental sustainability and quality. This is proved by an increasing number of certifications allowing Klopman fabrics to be used all over the world in order to meet the most demanding customer requirements.

Germany is Klopman's largest market, purchasing more than 10 million metres of fabric (7.8 per cent more than last year), followed by France (over 6 million, + 0.5 per cent) and Morocco (nearly 3 million, + 5.7 per cent). Italy is in the fifth position, purchasing 2.5 million metres of fabric, + 4 per cent  last year.

Klopman, European leader in the workwear industry, closed the financial year 2016-17 with a new record: a turnover that exceeds €130 million, an increase of 8.3 per cent over the previous year and a great leap forward compared to the €105 million achieved in 2012. Some 40 million metres of fabric were produced last year: 4.5 per cent growth in comparison with 2015. The significant growth of KAI, the Indonesian joint venture intended to supply the Asian market, represents an important step forward: from 1.5 million metres in 2014 to 6 million in 2016.

We expect that the market will evolve to higher quality products based on the demand of more fashionable workwear. Also, the sustainable aspects of fabrics used will become more and more important. We believe that in five years, the request of uniforms via rental model in Asia/ Middle-East will leap forward. We will also see the introduction of European/American protectivewear standards driven by higher attention to health, safety and environment norms and to employee safety. This would lead to a faster growth of the protectivewear segment.

China is a very important and price-driven market. Due to very rigid import restrictions, it is complicated to sell fabric to China. China is the factory of the world and factories need workers and workers need uniforms: it is a market where we will continue to persist.

Klopman recently achieved level 3 (the maximum result possible) in the prestigious STeP certification, released by the International Oeko-Tex Association. It represents a new standard system to measure manufacturing performances in terms of environmental performance, occupational safety and social working conditions along the entire textile chain. The certification applies to all processing stages, from spinning and weaving to dyeing and finishing, and analyses the facility's performances in terms of environmental performance, workers' health and safety, social responsibility, chemical products and their use and environmental management. The certificate indicates the general level reached by the company, expressed in a percentage, indicating the level and the score achieved in the six macro requirements involved. (RR)