Ligon: Expect best ITMA in recent history
Posted September 9, 2015
By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Harrell Ligon, president of 53-year-old Lang Ligon & Co., said he looks forward to the ITMA international textile machinery show in November in Milan.
This will make his 12th ITMA – a dizzying dozen – dating back to Paris in 1971 when he was a student at Clemson University. His dad, company founder Lang Ligon – who, at age 93-and-a-half still works 40 hours a week – knew his son was destined for this business then when the young man opted to attend a day at ITMA rather than tour the Palace of Versailles.
Lang Ligon & Co. of Greenville, S.C., has served the textile industry for 53 years. Founder Lang Ligon is flanked by his sons Richard (L) and Harrell.
Fast forward 44 years, to this ITMA. Harrell Ligon said he is optimistic that this quadrennial show will be one of the best in recent history, not only for the companies Lang Ligon represents but also for the customers who visit his four principals’ booths.
“I’m real positive that it will be a great show, based on the conversations I’ve had,” Ligon said. “I think people are going to go shopping. They’re going to touch and kick stuff. They’ll be serious.”
Ligon will be the company’s lone representative in Milan, as his father (the company’s chairman) doesn’t travel long distances anymore and his brother Richard Ligon (vice president) is responsible for the logistics side of the business, not technical/sales. So Harrell Ligon plans to stay busy the full eight days of the show, splitting time between his principals’ stands.
“I enjoy this show,” he said. “It’s good products, good people and it’s fun to see people.”
This will be Lang Ligon & Co.’s first ITMA as a representative of Comsat of Spain, so Ligon is particularly excited to share information about the company’s sectional and direct warpers, he said. Lang Ligon added Comsat warpers to its line about two years ago.
He also will be the contact for Western Hemisphere visitors in the company’s longtime principals’ booths. Among them: LGL Electronics of Bergamo, Italy, a supplier of yarn feeders for weaving and knitting machines. Even during the recession of 2008-09, LGL continued to engineer its products for the day when business would pick up, he said.
“There will be refinements to practically every feeder and brake system LGL offers,” Ligon said. “Whoever has these feeders will see new things from what they have, some of which they need and some they may not. So the people who have these feeders need to come by and check them out.”
Lang Ligon & Co. also represents two other Italian companies – Ferber for material-handling equipment and Ergoton for precision weaving let-offs and take-ups – and visitors can expect updates from those of those companies, as well, Ligon said.
“All of the companies we represent are family owned and run,” said Ligon, who speaks Italian. “They’re passionate about what they do. They’re multi-generational. And they’re all educated and all honest people. So that’s our model. And I can call any of them at any time.”
And that goes for American visitors, as well, who have seen their industry contract substantially the last 15 years, he pointed out.
“Those (U.S.) companies that have survived are doing well,” he said. “They remember what it’s like not to have much money. But they also have deferred capital expenditures. Now, it’s changing. They have to do something. There are only so many sheets you can pull off covered-up looms before you have to get more looms, for example. You can easily increase your production some, but you can’t increase it a lot. So they know they have to spend money now.”
