The textile industry has left its mark in the Zurich Oberland. The spinning mills have disappeared, as have the weaving mills, except for one. But the region is still world class in one area.
Less than ten kilometers lie between Sonnenbergstrasse 10 in Uster and Kastellstrasse 10 in Wetzikon. Here, the tradition of the cotton industry in the Zurich Oberland lives on in the form of two world-class companies: Uster Technologies and Loepfe Brothers.
But let’s start from the beginning: around 200 years ago, the industrial revolution arrived in the region in the form of spinning and weaving mills. The Aabach, with its constant water volume (thanks to Lake Pfäffikon as a regulating basin) and its slight gradient, was ideal for the use of hydropower at that time. While spinning and weaving had previously been done as home work in the region, a real wave of mechanical cotton spinning mills began in the first half of the 19th century. The Aabach became a “million-dollar stream” – not for the textile workers, but for the factory owners, of course.
For around 100 years, the Zurich Oberland was a center of the textile industry. Until it left for the Far East in the second half of the last century. Today, there is only one industrial cotton weaving mill left in the region: the Russikon weaving mill, which produces heavy damask fabrics from cotton.
Industry shapes the region and vice versa
Countless contemporary witnesses along the Aabach bear witness to the former size and importance of this industry – old, unused or converted factory sites, small power plants or even the villas of the factory owners. The textile industry shaped the Zurich Oberland. And the Zurich Oberland shapes the textile industry – to this day. Two companies in Uster and Wetzikon occupy a niche in which they are better than all others: Uster Technologies and Loepfe Brothers have specialized in quality assurance in the textile industry.
Both are subsidiaries of international corporations, but operate with great independence: Uster Technologies was created in 2003 through a management buyout from the Zellweger-Luwa Group and has been part of the Japanese group Toyota Industries Corporation since 2012. Loepfe Brothers has been part of the Belgian textile machinery manufacturer Vandewiele since 2021.
The textile business began in Uster in the 1930s. The breakthrough came in 1948 with the so-called yarn evenness tester (GGP) for spun yarn. In 1957, the Uster statistics followed, which recorded the quality of cotton fibers and yarns. These statistics subsequently covered more and more quality criteria and established themselves as a globally recognized quality standard for the textile industry. To this day, the quality of fibers and yarns is determined in Uster.
A city named after a company …
The standard carries the name Uster out into the world. With sometimes amusing consequences, as Davide Maccabruni explains with a laugh: “We sometimes receive international guests who are delighted that the city was named after our company.” The Italian-born man studied management and production technology at the Politecnico in Milan.
When it comes to the quality of yarn, winding machine manufacturers from all over the world look to the Oberland.
Ten kilometers away in Kempten, Loepfe Brothers Ltd. is operating in the same field of business. CEO Markus Kleindorp has been managing the company since May of this year. Before that, the German worked for more than 20 years at a Vandewiele subsidiary in Dornstetten (Baden-Württemberg).
The company was founded in 1955 by the brothers Helmut and Erich Loepfe. The company was initially based on Zypressenstrasse in Zurich, and ten years later it moved to Wetzikon. It all started with the so-called weft guide.
The optical-electronic devices monitored the yarn that was still in the weaving machine’s insertion system. If the supply was too low, the bobbin change was initiated automatically. The first opto-electronic yarn cleaner followed in 1962. This is where the product portfolios of the two Oberland companies overlap.
With the sensor through thick and thin
Loepfe Brothers and Uster Technologies manufacture components that are integrated directly into the yarn winding machines. Sensors check the yarn for thick and thin spots, but also for the smallest of contamination.
“Quality assurance is therefore a somewhat misleading term,” says Loepfe CEO Markus Kleindorp. “We are involved in the production process very early on.”
In a showroom on the company premises in Kempten there are various yarn winding machines in which Loepfe sensors are installed. They are small, barely fist-sized devices consisting of a sensor head and a computer unit. Up to 1800 meters of yarn are wound onto the spool per minute. Even at these high speeds, the sensor detects the smallest deviations in the yarn in the millimeter range.
The engineering takes place in Wetzikon. Central parts, such as optical components, are also manufactured on Kastellstrasse. Less important components such as housings are outsourced to suppliers. The final assembly takes place in Wetzikon.
Uster Technologies also develops and produces in the USA and China. But the yarn cleaner, one of the most important products, is manufactured in the home town.
The production location in Switzerland is important to both companies, and the high wage costs are bearable. The cost of the yarn clearer accounts for around 15 to 20 percent of the total price of a winding machine. “The customer chooses the equipment and thus determines the price,” explains Stefan Imfeld, Head of Materials & Production at Loepfe. “The number and type of sensors installed are crucial.”
Nevertheless, the Wetzikon location today only has “historical reasons,” adds Markus Kleindorp. Because the textile industry has moved on with the customers for the yarn clearers from Uster and Wetzikon. They can be counted on one hand: today, textile machine manufacturers – apart from Rieter in Winterthur – come from China, Japan and Italy.
The risk of getting into price competition with low-cost suppliers is low in this special segment. Errors in the end product damage the reputation of the textile manufacturer, and customer complaints can be expensive.
There are around 60 different processes from the individual cotton fiber to the finished T-shirt in the store. “Production is very fragmented, which creates niches like the one we occupy,” says Kleindorp. So far, no Chinese manufacturer has come up with the idea of copying the yarn clearers from Loepfe Brothers or Uster Technologies or developing something of their own: “The niche is simply too small.”
The textile business is cyclical
The product portfolios of the two Oberland companies overlap when it comes to yarn clearers. In addition to systems that monitor quality during a process, Uster Technologies also produces laboratory test equipment for quality assurance and is considerably larger than Loepfe. Uster Technologies employs around 680 people, around half of whom work at the Zellweger site in Uster, making the company the largest private employer in the city. Loepfe in Wetzikon employs around 120 people. Both Maccabruni and Kleindorp are silent about sales figures.
But they make no secret of the fact that times are challenging. The textile business is cyclical. Markus Kleindorp: “95 percent of all textiles are clothes. Sales of clothes depend on two factors: population size and prosperity.” When the economy is improving, people buy new clothes. When the economy is slowing, the first thing to cut back on is clothing. With consequences for the manufacturers of textile machines and machine parts. “The fluctuations in incoming orders are huge and can amount to 50 percent or more,” confirms Davide Maccabruni.
In addition, production capacities in the textile industry have doubled in the last 20 years. The world population has (fortunately) not grown at the same rate. As a result, there are too many textile machines in the world. And since a textile machine has a lifespan of around 20 years, this excess capacity will not disappear overnight. Markus Kleindorp: “The dry spell has now lasted two years. All we can do is wait until the engine starts up again.”
But these fluctuations have always existed, and the textile industry is used to dealing with them. Loepfe, for example, works with temporary employees and a higher level of automation in production, explains Kleindorp. This allows them to remain flexible. In addition, existing systems can also be modernized with new measuring devices, a welcome additional business in difficult times.
“Competition keeps us fit”
The fact that two Oberland companies are active in this niche of the global textile industry has “developed into a welcome status quo,” says Maccabruni. “The competition helps both companies to stay fit for the future.”
Source: Loepfe