Heytex Bramsche GmbH (Heytex) manufactures laminated and coated technical textiles and textile print media. The latter are used in the advertising industry and in exhibition construction, for example as banners on façades or translucent advertising media. Their manufacture is Heytex’s core business; with its broad product range, the company is the technological and European market leader in this sector and is widely known as a brand name. One of the defining features of technical textiles is their functionality, i.e. that they are of low inflammability, are water-resistant or scratchproof. They are used as truck tarpaulins, tents or for airdomes, but also as oil barriers, for example in open bodies of water, as drinking water containers and in advertising. Thanks to its broad product range, Heytex is relatively independent of economic developments in certain end-customer sectors and is certainly not reliant on individual customers. In addition, this gives it the opportunity to set itself apart from other suppliers. We also liked the fact that the company can manufacture the technologically sophisticated products that are in demand in the industrial sector and can do this even in small batch sizes while remaining profitable.

The plan at the start of the investment was to expand the company’s sales activities considerably. The focus was on forging ahead with internationalisation. The acquisition of the US company Bondcote, which has a similar product portfolio, allowed a key component of this strategy to be implemented. The plan is to increase the company’s market share for technical textiles; Heytex is to use the high degree of market fragmentation to achieve above-average growth with its high-quality products. Operational improvement measures will serve to boost profitability.

The sales organisation has been reorganised since the start of the investment. It turned out that there was a larger backlog than originally expected. In the US, sales activities are now organised via the subsidiary Bondcote. The location in China has been successfully restructured; operational improvement measures have made considerable progress in both German locations.

Despite revenues of 2019 being below the previous year’s level mainly due to unsatisfying development in one division and focus on profitable business, earnings considerably increased in comparison to prior year. This is due to the successful implementation of operational improvement measures, which significantly reduced Heytex’ cost structure.

With the capacity expansion in Bramsche and in China in place, the management targets a moderate increase in revenues for the upcoming financial year. Further improvements on the cost side and a more favourable product mix are expected to further improve Heytex’ profitability.