Strategic Realignment and Plant Closure

At the beginning of this year, Karl Mayer announced that it would be shifting its focus back to its core areas of warp knitting, warp preparation, and technical textiles. As part of this strategic realignment, the flat knitting machine business under the Stoll brand will be discontinued. The Reutlingen plant will close down on 31 October 2025, and production in China will end in December 2025. This was an extremely difficult decision for Karl Mayer. “Stoll stands for a long tradition. That is precisely why we deeply regret that we were unable to lead the business into the future successfully. It was not possible to find an investor to continue production at the main site in Reutlingen with its 280 employees,” said Oliver Mathews, President of the Stoll Business Unit.

Commitment to customers and service continuity

Karl Mayer remains committed to its long-standing customers and will continue to service the installed machine base even under the given circumstances. A service concept for spare parts and support is currently being implemented at various locations. Spare parts will be stored in two warehouses in the future. Karl Mayer’s central warehouse in Obertshausen will take over the stocks from Reutlingen in November and handle all logistics services up to dispatch. Additionally, Karl Mayer China will act as the sole central warehouse location to serve global demand for parts for BMS machines.

Final updates are available for the pattern software, and software licence keys remain available for purchase. Existing installations can still be used without interruption.

With the closure of the Reutlingen site, an era in Stoll’s history comes to an end. However, Karl Mayer’s strategic realignment underscores its focus on innovative technologies and core competencies to ensure long-term competitiveness.