Rieter has agreed to sell its nonwovens activities—Rieter Perfojet S.A.S.—to Austria-based Andritz and focus more squarely on its core acititives in the traditional textiles segments. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Located in Montbonnot, France, Rieter Perfojet employs about 50 and generates sales of $38 million (CHF40 million), according to Rieter. It develops and markets products and technologies under the JetLace and Spunjet brand names, which are used worldwide for the hydroentanglement of nonwovens.

According to company reports, the current economic crisis has led Rieter to intensify its efforts to concentrate its resources in the Textile Division on its core competencies in the field of spinning machinery for short staple fibers, together with technology components and service offerings.

A leader in the global spunlace market, Rieter Perfojet reports that there are currently more than 150 lines based on its technology operating throughout the world. Despite the economic crisis, this division has continued to perform well, most recently selling one new line to Turkey’s Eruslu in October and another to Zhejiang Shaoxing Nonwovens of China in May. Other capabilities include the proprietary Spunjet process, combining the benefits of spunbond and spunlace without calendering or needlepunching, and JetLace CottonPad, a compact and unique machine design dedicated to producing cotton pads, which was introduced in May.

Rieter’s technologies are currently on display at a technical center located in its Montbonnot, France headquarters

Completion of the transaction is subject to the consent of the anti-trust authorities. This is expected at the beginning of 2010.

Andritz is a publicly listed, international technology group with more than 13 000 employees and generated sales exceeding $5 million (€3.6 billion) in 2008. The Andritz Group already operates in the nonwovens business through its subsidiary Andritz Küsters GmbH in Krefeld (Germany), a supplier of roll and calender technology, purchased in June 2006.

.