Textile Experience

During my studies at the University of Cologne, Germany, I had the privilege of working in several commercial departments in Germany and the Netherlands at successor companies of Glanzstoff as well as in a production plant in three shift working. At that time, my duty was to refill an extruder with polyester chips - light-years away from today’s plant sizes after the transition from extruder spinning to continuous polymerization polyester plants.

Afterwards, I started to establish a market research department at Barmag, was promoted to the head of marketing and, after Saurer acquired Barmag, had the chance of moving to Saurer’s headquarters to Switzerland. That was an inspiring environment at the world’s largest manufacturer of spinning machines for natural and manmade fibers. Subsequently, nonwovens industry became more prominent through some acquisitions. The excellent business performance when investment sentiment in global textile business was on elevated level had attracted the attention of investors and finally Oerlikon enriched its portfolio with a textile machinery division. I continued my job as senior manager at Oerlikon Textile International Business for a while before I founded my own consulting company – The Fiber Year LLC end of 2010.

Numerous presentations at international conferences and several publications prove the company’s understanding of the textile market forces and the future development. Corresponding views appeared in various print media like for example annabelle, AVR, Bio-based News, Bloomberg, Chemical Fibers International, China Textile Magazine, China Textile Leader, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, eco Institut, FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Fibre2Fashion, Finanz und Wirtschaft, Forward Textile Technology, ICAC Cotton Review Report, Indian Textile Journal, International Fiber Journal, Knitting Trade Journal, Kohan Journal, Melliand, Nonwovens Industry, NZZ Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Oerlikon Fibers and Filaments, Schweizerische Umweltstiftung, Sustainable Nonwovens, Technical Textiles, Tecoya Trend, textile network, TEXTILplus, TextilWirtschaft, U.S. Congressional Research Service, WirtschaftsWoche, Zeit Online and others.

Many buzzwords, some of them taking a back seat in the meantime while others resound throughout the industry, paved the way of textiles such as localization, free market access, detoxing from hazardous chemicals, environmental protection, peak oil, competition with food crops, bio-based fibers, automatization, Industry 4.0, fast fashion, conditions of employment, safety at work, digital sales and printing, sustainability, recycling, prevention of plastic waste, …

Some made it and increasing measures are now being taken to cope with more ambitious sustainability regulations from governments and nongovernmental organizations as well as requirements from growing consumers’ awareness.

However, an issue and at the same time an ever-growing burden along the textile value chain has been mostly disregarded: excess capacity that has been constant companion in the century. Massive non-market-driven investments, subsidies, regulations to protect market segments and a lack of market transparency have promoted this development. International travel restrictions, cancelation of exhibitions and conferences during pandemic hamper an exchange of market knowledge for the time being. My target is to make a contribution to regain market balance with my new services that I am offering individually liable.