The Yarn Makes the Fabric
Interview with Bernd Schäfer, Managing Director of bäumlin & ernst ag
Founded in 1920, bäumlin & ernst ag (beag) looks back on nearly 125 years of company history. Initially, it supplied cotton plied yarns for the typical embroidery of tulle fabrics in the St. Gallen region. Today, beag is a specialist in technical yarns, which are used, for example, in textiles for sports and outdoor, textile, medical, and also food applications. In a conversation with Wirtschaftsforum, Managing Director Bernd Schäfer takes a look at the past, present, and future of the company.
"The foundation for the company that beag is today was established in the mid-1950s, when beag was one of the first companies in Switzerland to begin texturing polyamide yarns, which were needed for items like women's fine stockings," explains Bernd Schäfer. Already after World War II, beag had switched its production to artificial silk, that is, viscose filament yarn, and started manufacturing semi-synthetic twisted yarns, such as for balloon silk and parachute fabric. Thus, the company had laid the foundation for its current portfolio, which was broadened from 2000 with the technologies of elastic wrapping and air texturing and further diversified and specialized into the technical field from 2006 with the acquisition by H. Kuny & Cie. Küttigen AG.
Among the Top Three in the Market
"Under the new owner, beag really took off with yarns for the technical sector," describes Bernd Schäfer, who also joined the company in 2006, the further development. By now, their portfolio includes highly elastic crimped texturing yarns and elastic wrapped yarns for sports and outdoor textiles as well as medical bandages, inelastic wrapped yarns with functional polymers such as copper, carbon, and silver for use in smart textiles and wearables like RFID textile labels, as well as in the medical area, air-textured yarns for abrasion-resistant textiles in the areas of technical coating fabrics, acoustic fabrics, and sports, and twisted yarns with high thread cohesion, used in the manufacture of velcro fasteners, straps, tapes, and filter fabrics for the food sector.
This broad lineup is what gives beag its excellent market position. "Thanks to our strong specialization and currently with 44 employees and an annual turnover between seven and eight million EUR, we are rather a small company, but I would like to say: None of our competitors 'ticks' like beag," says Bernd Schäfer. "The range of process techniques that we cover cannot be matched by anyone. When necessary, we also cooperate with our competitors. Especially where it concerns specified, functional applications, such as in the areas of medical, filtration, and electrical conductivity, we are always among the top three in the market." Currently active throughout the entire DACH region, further internationalization is conceivable in the future. "Preferably to the USA," emphasizes the managing director. "But there is also a strong interest in our yarns in Eastern European textile productions, from where we increasingly receive inquiries."