SWEDEN
In the heart of Gothenburg at the classic Elite Park Avenue Hotel, around 135 participants met on 15 May for an action-packed day full of inspiring lectures. The occasion? The Swedish Textile Services Association Annual Meeting. It was fitting, said Swedish TSA CEO Daniel Kärrholt, to hold the event at this hotel, which like the Association, has its roots in the 1940s yet exudes a fresh modernity.
Kärrholt reported: As usual, we were welcomed by one of the political representatives from this conference city, this time the municipal councillor Blerta Hoti with responsibility for preschool, children’s and cultural issues. Previously, she was an expert in the Ministry of Defence for the Minister of Defense Peter Hultqvist and worked for the Social Democrats in the European Parliament and at Volvo.
Sustainability a key factor
Blerta gave an engaging talk about sustainability being key for the city and warmly welcomed the Association to Gothenburg. Blerta also presented the Swedish Textile Association’s Sustainability Award 2025, which recognised two award winners who each contribute in their own way to increased sustainability within the industry. The winners were Lars Larsson and Christer Bäcker, who were awarded the Textile Service Industry Sustainability Award. In collaboration with Ecolab, it was awarded for the ninth year in a row.
Creating a sustainable laundry in Ystad
Entrepreneur Lars Larsson, from Ystad, since 2014 has been passionate about making Hemrex as sustainable a company as possible. Through the newly-built laundry, completed in 2024, Larsson has taken a big step from a traditional drycleaner to a laundry using the latest technology for advanced laundry, utilising energy optimisation and producing almost all the electricity for the business from 450 square metres of solar panels. Through his company, Larsson also has an active social commitment and supports initiatives for young people through local projects and associations. In addition, he supports Star for Life, which works for school children in southern Africa.
Energy advice for a changing market
Energy expert Christer Bäcker, through his specialisation in the energy market and in finding purchasing strategies to secure long-term good prices for electricity and gas in a volatile market, has contributed with tireless energy to our members having the opportunity to achieve a stable price picture and thereby ensure sustainable economic sustainability. Through conscious choices, economic sustainability has gone hand in hand with ecological sustainability, as finite and climate-impacting fossil energy has been cost-effectively phased out towards renewable alternatives.
Honouring youth
The prize money for each winner is 5,000 Swedish kronor, a sum that they have the opportunity to donate. Bäcker has decided to create a scholarship for the young water conservationist Edvin, 14 years old, who on his own initiative is working to restore a riverbed that is important for aquatic animals in Hälsingland.
Lars chose to donate his prize money to the promising tennis junior Melker Andersson, also 14 years old, from Ystad.After the award ceremony, each laureate gave a scholarship lecture.
Annual meeting with re-election
During the traditional annual meeting of the Association. The election committee convener, Carl-Johan Björkman, was pleased to note the good spirit in the Board’s work and proposed re-election across the Board.
A traditional swing
Another cherished tradition is that someone from the Streijffert family wins the Textile Services Association’s Golf Tournament with the subsequent responsibility of organising next year’s competition. Peter Streijffert took the opportunity to invite golfers to the pearl of eastern Sweden, Öland.
Producer responsibility
On the agenda for the morning were two more lectures – first up was Birgitta Losman, Borås University.Losman is a sustainability strategist at the University of Borås and has previously been a special investigator for producer responsibility in textiles and a regional councilor in the Västra Götaland region.
The lecture, ‘Collection of textile waste and producer responsibility – what is happening in Europe and Sweden?’, presented examples from the Government mission Textile & Fashion 2030 and a demonstrator for a sustainable textile system. The lecture highlighted current issues around textile recycling and producer responsibility in Sweden and Europe.
A journey of change
Andreas Beirholm then took over. With the help of Bureau Veritas, Beirholms Væverier has investigated the carbon footprint from raw materials to laundry (scope3) and the presentation covered various examples and described Beirholm’s journey of change.
After imbibing all this knowledge, it was time for a different form of intake. Lunch was served on the lower veranda. The chefs had prepared sweet chili and soy baked salmon with rice, coriander, lime and toasted sesame seeds.
Then it became standard
When we gathered after lunch, the train schedule had to be changed somewhat due to trains from Stockholm being severely delayed. We first had the pleasure of listening to Carina Lund, Almedahls Alingsås and Annika Sandell, HejMar, with the lecture ‘Standardisation – A joint effort or, to put it another way, Standards – a necessary evil or a valuable tool?’.
Sandell, who is the chair of SIS/TK332 – Healthcare Textiles and a member of SIS/TK333 – Surgical Textiles, and Carina, who is a member of both committees, gave a very insightful description of the importance of standards and how the work is organised.
Extend lifespan
Next up, the company recommended, known from TV´s Dragons’ Den and as Textilia’s sustainability scholarship holder ,and Rikard Ledin da Rosa, one of the founders, took to the stage.
RecoMended offers a comprehensive range of services tailored for textile and fashion companies looking to extend the lifespan of their products. The services act as a comprehensive solution to enable scalable and circular business offerings.
With a scalable business model and a high degree of automation, innovative processes are provided to sort and restore used textiles through repair and refurbishment on an industrial scale.
Time to network
Afternoon coffee was another great opportunity for networking. The carrot cake was also a huge hit.
Replete with coffee and cake, we finally got to welcome Jonas Roupé, form the National Association of Tyre Specialists. His lecture was entitled ‘Laundry and tyres – paving the way for systemic change in a troubled world. How do societally important industries navigate in a time of new demands, fragile systems, and increasing geopolitical tensions?’.
It was a journey into the tyre industry’s work with circular economy, preparedness and sustainable business development – and how workshops and laundries have more in common than you might first think.
Roupé shared insights from the world-unique work done within Swedish tyre recycling – and gave an insight into how the tyre industry in Sweden thinks about sustainability, preparedness and the business logic of the future.
In his lecture, he touched on, among other things:
– What does the National Association of Tire Specialists think about sustainability and social contracts?
– Why recycling is not enough – and what is needed for real system change
– What is so world-leading about Swedish Tire Recycling?
– How producer responsibility and circular material flows can create radically better or worse futures
– How sustainability can become a strategic asset even for small players
Index a key
Then it was time for Mr Index – Stefan Pettersson who has always been a good friend of the Swedish Textile Services Association. He was a speaker at the 2017 annual meeting and an exhibitor at the 2019 autumn meeting. He told us that in his new role as CEO of SBI Swedish Industry indices, he will take on the task of replacing Statistics Sweden as the producer of the textile service index and 19 other industry indices from 2026-01-01. SBI is in full swing getting different parts of the company in place and not least building index models.
Then it was AHA
The biggest AHA experience of the day was still the closing lecture with André Andersson, Scribill.
Scribill is a leading player in the training and implementation of AI technologies, with a focus on ChatGPT, which makes AI accessible and usable for companies of all sizes that want to streamline processes, optimise resource use, and develop AI expertise.
As the co-founder and CEO of Scribill, Andersson is passionate about providing companies with the knowledge and tools needed to successfully integrate and leverage AI into their workflows. With his practical and engaging training style, he has taken over 3000 participants from theory to practice.
Streamline your business with AI – An introduction to ChatGPT
During the lecture, Andersson highlighted concrete areas of use where ChatGPT makes a real difference and gave examples of how companies can benefit from the technology to streamline communication and work processes.
Andersson also shared knowledge on how to best adapt ChatGPT to a company’s specific needs. This included adjusting the AI’s creativity level, tailoring the AI assistant’s personality to a company’s unique needs, and writing prompts that generate desired results.
A tasteful ending
After a truly appetising day, the final dinner was as good as the menu sounded. Skagen toast with crispy apple served on buttered toast topped with trout roe. Spiced roast beef fillet with roasted root vegetables flavoured with honey, thyme and garlic, served with potato cream and red wine sauce and tarragon emulsion. Berry compote and Bavarian cream flavoured with vanilla and crispy chocolate followed.
It was a tasty end to a nutritious day with good opportunities for intensive networking. Another year has been added to the agenda and the next one is already rolling.
Swedish TSA extended thanks to those who participated and its partners Beirholms Væverier, MAXI-PRESS and ABS.
