INTERNATIONAL
Andreas Holzer, a member of bardusch group’s business management team, has been named the new new president of the European Textile Services Association (ETSA). He has been elected to hold the post President for the next three years.
Holzer, a member of the business management team of the bardusch group, is taking over the role from Thomas Krautschneider, CEO of the Austrian company Salesianer. ETSA members held their first meeting under Holzer’s presidency on 8 September.
“I feel honoured to be the president of ETSA. Its main mission is to represent the association’s members, which are leading textile service providers, their supplier firms in Europe and national associations.” He said the Covid-19 crisis had highlighted the importance of industrial laundries as local suppliers of vitally important undertakings.
“Clients such as hospitals and foodstuffs companies have become aware how resiliently and reliably our branch works. We are on the spot and are able to supply them with hygienically clean textiles - quickly and flexibly at all times. It’s true that this is what we have always done; it’s just that in the past less public attention was paid to the services and skills of textile service providers,” said Holzer.
Holzer, who holds an engineer’s qualification from the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), is a member of the business management team of the German company bardusch Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG, with responsibility for the operations of the bardusch group’s non-German businesses.
For the past three years he has also been chairman of the board of directors of bardusch AG (Switzerland). As its CEO from 2008 to 2018, he developed the company into one of the leading textile service providers in Switzerland.
Holzer wants to take advantage of increased public awareness of the benefits of using textile services providers during the Covid-19 crisis to increase the branch’s reputation in the long term. “Client proximity, delivery security, speed and high standards of hygiene are the defining features of textile service firms. We will also be launching a series of new campaigns,” said Holzer. “Our business model is sustainable and matches the current mindset in society with its shift away from disposables to reusables and a circular economy. Our branch is fully committed to sustainability. This means durable textiles, energy efficiency, optimalisation of water use, environment-friendly detergents, short local supply chains, and the acceptance of social responsibility in respect of employees and within the supply chain.”
With an annual turnover of around 13 billion euros and around 140 000 jobs in the European Union, the textile services industry is an important part of the European economy. In recent years the market has grown in nearly every segment, and according to one study it could expand over the next few years to a turnover of around €46 billion.
