As we bid farewell to 2023, it's time to celebrate some of the milestones we've achieved, & we're thrilled to share our annual wrap-up with you.
🆕 In 2023, we witnessed significant growth:
We increased our team from 100 to 150 members, representing 17 nationalities across 3 countries to serve our clients better;
Moved into a new office and warehouse in Porto 🇵🇹, & inaugurated a new Tech Center in Istanbul 🇹🇷;
Expanded our distributor network from 7 to 13 countries, setting new records in global installations & deployments 🌍;
Pioneered the Modern Textile Factory Group, focusing on reshaping the industry, & unveiled the insights-packed 2023 Modern Textile Factory Report with our collective findings;
Introduced the new AI Boost Tool, which helped customers receive up to a 43% increase in production without compromising on quality;
Launched Smartex LOOP for traceability and product passports, Smartex CORE for tubular machines, & Smartex FACT, an all-in-one digital factory management solution.
Collaborated with major OEMs such as Terrot, Pilotelli, Unitex, & Vahdet, fortifying our commitment to Smartex-ready AI-upgraded machines;
Helped customers get grants & funding;
Introduced 100% Automatically Graded Production & Digitalized Quality Control;
Actively participated in key events worldwide, including DTG Dhaka 🇧🇩(the main textile event in Bangladesh), showcased our innovations at ITMA in Milan, Italy 🇮🇹(with a presence in 5 booths, at the world’s largest textile trade show 🙌), Sustainability Talks Conference in Turkey 🇹🇷, TIFE in Taiwan 🇹🇼, Sustainable Apparel Forum in Bangladesh 🇧🇩 & H&M’s Entrepreneurs Day in Sweden 🇸🇪. We also successfully launched the SmartCollab series in Porto 🇵🇹 & Istanbul 🇹🇷, uniting industry leaders, brands, & innovators for exclusive events.
At Smartex, we’re on a mission to transform the textile industry towards full transparency & zero-waste! Therefore, we are always eager to learn & share knowledge.
💡 Some interesting lessons from 2023:
👉 Rise of Competition: It’s good to see major textile players exploring computer vision solutions for quality control in textiles. This is great for 2 reasons:
a) It helps some more skeptical textile producers that these technologies are here to stay.
b) Now we have more voices educating a whole textile community about the benefits of reducing waste and its impact on gross margins.
The category has been created, & Smartex is the clear leader with thousands of systems sold worldwide & investing heavily in creating much more value for clients in addition to detecting defects.
👉 Efficiency in Downturn: The textile market downturn emphasizes the importance of efficiency. This industry traditionally has low gross margins & high volumes, so when the volume goes down, it becomes much more challenging. There is zero tolerance for gross margin killers like defects/waste/manual processes that generate mistakes & inefficiencies — we are here to help with that!
👉 Quality is at the Center: We continuously observe in all countries where we operate that the best factories really understand quality & processes. They know all problems’ origin & control them. They avoid pen-paper or manual inputs & writing & prefer integrated solutions. Leading factories prioritize quality & streamlined processes, investing in integrated solutions for efficiency, client trust, & increased profitability.
👉 Sustainability Opportunities: Growing demands for sustainability & traceability present opportunities for textile factories to align with evolving consumer, brand, & government expectations. We see these demands going from “nice to have” to “highly recommended” & soon becoming “mandatory”. Having all production recorded, with no manual data traceability systems is essential for operational efficiency, & soon will be a “license to make business”.
♻️ Savings, Sustainability & Impact in 2023:
This year our systems stopped knitting machines while producing continuous defects (& manually verified) over 46,500 times! The total since we started is now 84,150 times! Based on client pre-Smartex data, validated with our hardware, this means an average of:
👕 Fabric saved: 1,010,000+ kg of fabric waste prevented (eq. to 4M t-shirts)
🚰 Water saved (dye house): 107.3+ million L of water prevented from going to waste
⚡ Energy saved (knitting + dye house): 9,110,000+ kWh of energy saved
💨 CO2 emissions saved (knitting + dye house): 2,270+ tons kg of CO2 saved
⏭️ Looking Ahead to 2024:
Catch us at upcoming events such as DTG Dhaka 🇧🇩, Knit Tech 🇮🇳, Indo Intertex 🇮🇩, Saigontex 🇻🇳, Igatex 🇵🇰, ITM 🇹🇷 and CAITME 🇺🇿.
Your feedback drives us forward. Keep pushing us, & let us know of any events we should attend.
Stay connected on social media for product launches, case studies, and educational content (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter).
Our goal is to continue developing the tools for the Modern Textile Factory!
On behalf of the Smartex team, thank you for your unwavering support.
Wishing you a phenomenal 2024! 💜