Within 12 months of its acquisition by Battery Ventures of the US, James Heal was proud to showcase its status as the innovation leader in textile testing solutions at ITMA 2015.
The Milan show proved the perfect platform for James Heal for showcasing its range of high quality and innovative testing instruments and complementary test materials and services. Visitors from over 60 countries were highly impressed with the company commitment to design, user intuitive functionality and product quality.
Adopting a unique approach, the company stand took the form of a working laboratory to demonstrate the products in their natural environment. In addition, the testing experts held a number of demonstrations and training sessions at the company stand.
The products showcased included the established industry instruments of choice such as Martindale, Titan, TruFadeElmatear and TruBurst, as well as the latest in cutting-edge instruments like ProMace, a mace snag tester used to determine the snag resistance of fabrics and widely acknowledged as the safest, ProView, the efficient, user-friendly universal assessment viewer with pre-loaded images and touchscreen capability for multiple test methods, and the FlexiFrame, a stretch and recovery instrument that offers flexible and accurate static extension testing for standards, where the use of a tensile tester would be prohibitive due to time.
“ITMA has traditionally been a very important event in the James Heal calendar, but the latest show exceeded all expectations”, said Andrew Hemingway, Commercial Director. “2015 has been a fantastic year for the company, with the growing number of visitors to the stand. Having the opportunity to meet so many people, and feel their emotional connection with the James Heal brand, was a fantastic experience for the team. The opportunities to develop our business across the globe are vast and demand for our products and services has never been higher.”
The ITMA exhibition also coincided with the conclusion of our first full financial year since acquisition in September 2014 by Battery Ventures. “In addition to posting sales growth of more than 10 per cent and expanding our global outreach to more than 70 countries, we have been able to invest significantly in the infrastructure and systems which will enable us to achieve the impressive growth targets fixed for now and 2020. Furthermore, these investments will help underpin our mission to provide and support the most reliable materials testing solutions in the world,” he added.
Amanda McLaren, Managing Director, observed: “The partnership with Battery Ventures enables us to take the company to the next level, making key strategic investments that will help drive forward our philosophy of continuous improvement. Battery Ventures has been delighted with our progress in the first 12 months of ownership and our employees and sales channel partners across the globe deserve a huge amount of credit for their efforts and dedication. We remain wholly committed to providing innovative, high quality materials testing solutions in our core market. In parallel, we are also extremely excited about the business potential that we have identified through our diversification strategies”.