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Five years ago, Ridder added screen fabrics to its product portfolio in response to clear indications from the company’s existing customer that they needed an additional supplier of screens.
Thanks to the work done by Mario Scherpenzeel (who passed away on 20 July 2019), Ridder started to develop an extensive portfolio and entered the screen market. Mario laid the foundation for reliable, professional knowledge about screen fabrics within Ridder. Without that knowledge, Ridder would not have been able to achieve everything that it has. Johan van Erven, Ridder’s Commercial Product Specialist: “Five years ago, our product portfolio still had many gaps, although we did have a number of great products to enter the market with.”
Ridder started out with twelve screen fabrics in three different sizes, all of which were available from stock. Today, we have a total of seventeen fabric types available from stock. The complete range includes more than thirty variants, including screen fabrics that are manufactured entirely within the Netherlands.
In addition to our existing screen fabrics, last year Ridder began to offer ‘co-creation’ for screen fabrics. Niels Lünnemann, Operational Director: “We sit down with our customers to find out exactly what they need. Then we develop a variant based on our existing fabrics, so that we can meet their exact requirements.”
CONTINUOUS INVESTMENTS IN R&D
In addition to the introduction of new and co-created fabrics, Ridder is constantly seeking to optimize its current range of fabrics. “For example, we’re looking into how we can achieve better energy savings with our energy-saving screens,” explains Niels. “But we always keep an eye on cost-effectiveness, too. ”
Ridder has now delivered more than 4,000 hectares of screen fabric to its customers. Last year, Ridder passed a special milestone when it delivered 1,500 hectares in the Netherlands alone. Ridder’s production centre in
Maasdijk now has four knitting machines. Although Ridder does not intend to produce all its screen fabric in the Netherlands, the Maasdijk centre does make the company less dependent on partners in Asia. Now, customers and growers can come and see their screen fabric being produced. Ridder wants to make a real impact on the market in the next five years. “Making things easier for the customer is our priority,” says Niels.
