First partner already on board for HeiQ’s new yarn
Swiss textile innovator HeiQ has said its new renewable raw material-derived cellulosic yarn, AeoniQ, has the potential to replace polyester and nylon in the global apparel market. However, it has acknowledged from the outset that this can only happen with the help of partners.
It is aiming to make an initial 100 tonnes of the yarn in 2022 and to expand from there, making 30,000 tonnes per year at a first mass-manufacturing plant, “gigafactory one”, that it intends to inaugurate in 2024. Even this will be a relatively small step on the road to replacing the 80 million tonnes of polyester and nylon that apparel manufacturers use each year.
Co-founder and chief executive, Carlo Centonze, said on launching AeoniQ that the technology is He added: “We are offering an opportunity to a first group of partners. We are looking to have a limited number of 20 brand partners. We are also looking to secure five, globally present operational partners so that we can scale up with multiple plants to make sure that it gets adopted as quickly as possible by as many companies as possible.”
At the same time, he said HeiQ wanted to work on “very deep innovation partnership and go-to-market strategies” with two strategic AeoniQ partners. He then presented The Lycra Company as the first of these two strategic partners.
Welcoming the development, Lycra chief executive, Julien Born, said future strategy there centred on sustainable solutions for the textile industry. “We are proud to partner with HeiQ in the technical development and commercialisation of this fibre,” Mr Born said. “The industry is ready for innovations such as AeoniQ. We are well positioned to learn quickly and maximise the huge potential of this new technology.”
