The key business principles of the Gebr. Otto Baumwollfeinzwirnerei
are sustainability, maximum product quality and power of innovation. The
family business with production facilities in Dietenheim and Balzheim
near Ulm in Germany is one of the leading yarn manufacturers in Europe,
supplying to internationally renowned customers in the clothing industry
and in the sector of technical and medical textiles. In 2002, the
company was certified as an environmentally friendly and socially
responsible production facility in line with the requirements of
OEKO-TEX® Standard 1000 as the first spinning mill and dye works in
Germany. This allows the company to attach the OEKO-TEX® Standard
100plus label to its products as well.
Over 100 years of progress and quality
The company started
out as Gebr. Otto with a twisting mill in Dietenheim in 1901. The
increased demand for textiles following World War II lead to the
addition of the sectors dyeing, mercerising and ring spinning. A second
spinning mill was added in 1990 despite the general crisis in the German
textile industry. Today it is one of the most modern plants in Europe.
160 employees work at the production facilities in Dietenheim and
Unterbalzheim, producing yarn for customers in the sectors circular
knitting, flat knitting and weaving as well as for manufacturers of
technical textiles (e.g. automotive, hygiene) and medical textiles.
Gebr. Otto focuses on yarns of the highest quality, made from the
natural product cotton as well as from fibres from natural raw
materials. The company is one of the leading yarn manufacturers,
producing an annual output of more than 3000 tons of cotton yarn with
modern plants for spinning, twisting, dyeing and yarn mercerising.
Customers include renowned clothing manufacturers and brands such as
Petit Bateau, Schiesser, Speidel, Mey, eterna, Trigema or Triumph
International. This makes Gebr. Otto one of only a few manufacturers in
the textile industry who can maintain their position in Germany, thanks
to the appropriate know-how and the required experience. ‘We practise
our values from generation to generation rather than from one quarterly
profit to the next. And that includes a very strong sense of
identification with our employees and our location,’ Andreas Merkel,
managing director at Gebr. Otto, points out. But this great loyalty to
the roots of the company also meant that the company first had to create
the preconditions for being able to prevail over the competition from
low-wage countries. According to Andreas Merkel, this was ensured by
developing an appropriate strategy: ‘From a purely economic
point-of-view, production in Germany does not actually pay. This is the
reason why we focus on a premium and niche strategy to be able to stand
our ground on the international market.’
Sustainable Concepts
The core business of Gebr. Otto is
essentially based on three pillars: manufacturing of fine premium yarns
for the technical sector and the clothing industry (OTTO Premium Yarns),
the development and introduction of sustainable, integrated product
concepts for customers in the clothing industry and in the technical
sector (Sustainable Concepts) and the manufacturing of hygiene products
and class 1 medical products (OTTO-Medicare).
The company division ‘Sustainable Concepts’ has been focusing on a
now omnipresent trend since 1998. For the spinning mill this was a
reaction to the increased ecological demands of the customers – mainly
from the clothing industry but also from the sector of technical
textiles. ‘Environmental protection and sustainability are not just lip
service for us‘, stresses Andreas Merkel, ’they determine our business
activities. We have firmly embedded this claim into our company
philosophy.’ In addition to the product ranges ‘Fair Trade’ and ‘Bio
Yarns’ (where Gebr. Otto is one of only a few spinning mills to offer
the combination of Fair Trade and organic cotton), this has lead to the
creation of innovative products and concepts which have attracted
international attention.
The Piumafil® yarn developed in 2006 allowed the company to use
innovative technologies for spinning a mixture of wild kapok and
hand-picked cotton into high-quality premium yarn for the first time.
Until then the kapok fibre had been thought to be unsuitable for
spinning and was primarily used as a filling material. Kapok is a hollow
cellulosic fibre with a length of approx. 2-4 cm. It contains 80% air
and is six times lighter than cotton. The kapok fibre has special
thermal properties and a silky sheen, which is why it is sometimes
referred to as silk cotton or vegetable cashmere. The natural wax
coating of the fibre only allows a low level of moisture absorption – an
advantage that promises excellent wearing properties for clothing
textiles. The kapok tree is a tropical plant indigenous to Indonesia,
Java, Malaysia, West Africa, the Caribbean and northern South America.
Kapok does not grow in monocultures such as plantations. It needs the
environment of the tropical rainforest and is therefore free from
pesticides and fertilisers. Kapok is 100 per cent biodegradable. Andreas
Merkel also focuses on the benefits for the people and the natural
environment in the countries of origin: ‘A demand for the fibres from
wild kapok trees ensures the livelihood of the local population who
harvest these fruit by hand. This in turn prevents deforestation by fire
in these areas.’ With this contribution to the protection of the
tropical rainforests, the company is an official partner of the nature
conservation organisation WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). Part of the
profits from Piumafil® go towards the reforestation of the tropical
rainforest.
Another innovative product concept is the recot²® fibre which was
developed in cooperation with Ulm university. The name is a combination
of the words ‘recycled’ and ‘cotton’. The power of 2 represents the
magnitude of the possible savings with regard to water as a natural
resource. The new fibre mix consists of 50% raw cotton and 50% recycled
selected production waste or 75% organic raw cotton and 25% recycled
cotton. This saves water and significantly reduces the use of
pesticides. The production of a T-shirt, for example, usually requires
about 4,000 litres of water from raw material to finished product. With
the new fibre, only half the amount of this precious resource is used.
This manufacturing method can save 5,000 litres of water for each
kilogramme of yarn. Andreas Merkel sees huge potential for the future:
‘The lack of water is becoming dramatically obvious in more and more
regions of the world. With this approach, we have made our contribution
to the protection of this valuable and life-sustaining natural
resource.’
Sustainable added value
In 2002, Gebr. Otto was one of the
first ever companies to be certified according to the requirements of
OEKO-TEX® Standard 100plus. The OEKO-TEX® Standard 100plus product label
enables textile and clothing manufacturers to use one single test mark
for providing their customers with documentation of the human ecology
requirements according to OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 and their
environmentally friendly production conditions according to OEKO-TEX®
Standard 1000. Andreas Merkel is convinced that the required measures
have been worthwhile for the company: ‘We are convinced that products
from environmentally friendly production which have undergone testing
for harmful substances offer clear added value for consumers. OEKO-TEX®
Standard 100plus is one of the few labels that can communicate this
added value for finished textiles at point of sale.’
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