Interview with Mr Hans Zöbisch

TEXTILE COLOR, unlike the factories of my ancestors, is not a producer of textiles, but supplies them with textile auxiliaries, dyes and optical brighteners. Thus, the properties of the resulting textiles are influenced decisively, vice versa, the requirements of the textile industry also influence the development of our products. These requirements are subject to a constant change and the associated demands have risen strongly in the past and will continue to rise. We consider it our task, not only to observe the current trends and respond to it early, but also to help to shape them with innovative products within our possibilities. Thus we want to enable our customers to differentiate themselves in the market and to position themselves firmly. At the same time we want to differentiate ourselves from our competitors with typically Swiss highest quality and best possible environmental compatibility.

The Swiss textile industry nowadays is only very small. Therefore, we export far more than 95 % of our products and try to follow the production sites of the textile industry. At the same time the pressure on our products in those respective countries increases by competing local producers, as they usually can produce cheaper and do not have to face long transport routes. This is a challenge for us to particularly place emphasis on innovation, quality, environmental compatibility and service.

A company has to make profits in order to exist and to be able to invest. Rising raw material prices burn profits and consequently will have an impact on the prices of our products because we have to pay wages, maintenance costs, energy, water and further fixed costs. In extreme situations like the current price explosion austerity measures in all areas have to act and alternative raw materials or alternative suppliers with favorable price and satisfactory quality have to be found. Our commitment to quality must not suffer from this situation as our competitiveness is decisively depending on this. We must try to expand our sales to get into the position to negotiate prices due to larger purchasing quantities. At the same time we have to minimize the amount of work where possible and optimize processes for the production. Mankind needs textiles and therefore the textile industry needs textile auxiliaries - we just have to ensure that our products will be preferred.