Zele, Belgium – Belgian printing specialist Ets. Goeters ''Ars et Labor'' has set up its own jacquard weaving unit, which should be operational in January 2000. This, together with a refinement and expansion of the existing coating facilities, now allows Goeters to present a complete and integrated range of home decoration textiles, including contract market qualities.

For half a century already Goeters has been one of the leading European suppliers of printed home decorative fabrics, in terms of creativity and quality. In order to meet its clients' increasing demand, the company decided in 1996 to enlarge its collections with a line of jacquard woven fabrics. From a creative point of view, this line was closely linked to the print collection, but was produced outside.

Goeters General Manager Henk Dedecker said that company decided to install the jacquard weaving unit in order to avoid the mistakes that are inherent when working with third parties. ''We never have had full control of the complete production process, with sometimes minor, but unpleasant problems as a consequence,'' he said. ''So, we stuck to our company policy of 'If you want it done right, do it yourself.' We finally decided to set up our own weaving capacity. Our printing and weaving ranges are now optimally geared to each other,'' he said.

The project was worked out with the support and direction of Goeters' mother company Concordia in Waregem, Belgium, with its 850 looms, one of the main producers of fabrics for garments in Europe. The first five state of the art Dornier jacquard looms are situated in the Concordia premises in Waregem, enabling there a jacquard production capacity of some 600,000 meters yearly, with the aim to double this in a two years. The present looms are very flexible and allow for widths from 1.4 up to 2.8 meters.

According to its renovation investment policy, Goeters has recently put into use a new inkjet printer for the production of samples of its print collection. The company engineers have now realized the final product in rotation print in exactly the same coloring of the inkjet produced samples, thus preserving clients from unpleasant surprises at delivery.

The company has also enlarged its range of coated products such as roller blinds, shower curtains and tablecloths, being able to deliver widths up to 2.2 meters.

Dedecker said that company also has its own bedding textiles department, which is able to meet any client demands in the field of design, coloring and dimensions.

''It is certainly one of our strong points that we can offer all these collections in one global concept,'' he said. ''Jacquards, prints, bedding textiles, roller blinds, shower curtains and tablecloth in one all over harmonious color and design idea. Not only interesting for the residential market, but certainly also for the contract market.''

Apart from the presentation of this total concept, Goeters will also launch at Heimtextil 2000 a completely new collection of ausbrenners and crushed fabrics.

In general, Dedecker said he is satisfied with the volume of new orders. ''From March 1999 on, orders have been increasing again, as well for prints as for jacquards and special coatings. Furthermore, outlooks for the next six months are excellent, as well as in Europe — where we presently realize some 90 percent of our total turnover — including Germany, as in the Far East, where we notice a growing interest for our products.''