Scholler AddressesCarolinas Textile ClubKurt Scholler, American Trutzschler Inc. CEO and American
Textile Machinery Association (ATMA) chairman, presented a message of concern and a call for unity
within the apparel and textile industries at the Carolinas Textile Clubs April meeting.Scholler
told members, Now, time and circumstances impose more change on all of us. We, collectively, are
not suffering through a down cycle. We are adjusting to a major industrial transformation a
revolution of global nature an age driven by technology and computerization. Considering the impact
of global shifts in the marketplace, Scholler said, In short, we have world overcapacity; basic
structural shifts of production; the U.S. textile industry is shrinking; the U.S. dollar is
overvalued; the textile world is targeting the U.S.A. and Washington is not responding
sufficiently. I agree it is not fair. But, it is reality: The U.S. government, the U.S. economic
system, simply has not responded adequately to what was being done and what is being done to the
apparel and textile industries of this nation.Scholler stressed the need for unity within the U.S.
industry, and detailed activities within ATMA that have led to alliances within the U.S.
manufacturing sector and other capital equipment associations, as well as the importance of the
American Textile Alliance.Scholler said he has faith American suppliers and mills will survive, as
long as they look toward new methods of cooperation among themselves. There are no short-term fixes
beyond miracles from Washington, he continued.Our associations provide fertile ground for strategic
business alliances, vertically and horizontally. Realistically, for those companies that have some
business and some reserve resources, we are looking at mid-term and long-term approaches.By Jim
Borneman, Editor In Chief
May 2002
