Switzerland-based Schoeller Textil AG — a developer and manufacturer of stretch woven functional
fabrics and smart textile technologies for activewear, workwear and lifestyle apparel applications
— has acquired Christian Eschler AG — a Switzerland-based manufacturer of functional knitted
fabrics for sports, including high-performance Alpine sports; as well as workwear, technical
textiles and lingerie applications.
According to the companies, which as separate family-owned enterprises have long worked
together, the merger will broaden the offerings available to joint customers. In addition,
Eschler’s knitting expertise is expected to provide important synergies for innovations developed
within Schoeller’s recently established venture, Schoeller Medical AG, whose first commercial
product line is the functionMED™ range of fashionable, comfortable women’s and men’s incontinence
underwear.
Speaking about the merger, Schoeller Textil Board of Administration President Franz Albers
stated, “It is the coming together of two companies, each of which is among the world-wide market
leaders in its own segment and ideally complements one another.”
Eschler Group Board of Administration President Hansjörg Rettenmund concurred, calling the
cooperation “a far-sighted business move which will secure the future and which represents a
logical consequence in terms of market positioning.”
The Eschler brand will continue to be offered as an independent brand. Schoeller will base
its sports apparel sales organization, including 45 employees, in Eschler Group’s headquarters in
Bühler, Switzerland. Former Managing Director Matthias Eschler, will continue to lead activities at
the Eschler Textil GmbH plant in Balingen, Germany, overseeing an expansion of Eschler’s Technical
Textiles division as well as the manufacture of high-tech knit fabrics to be offered under the
Schoeller brand for commercial and professional sports apparel.
The development team at Eschler’s technology and innovation center, which opened in Bühler
last year as part of a group restructuring, is now located in Schoeller’s Sevelen, Switzerland,
facility. Developments will also be carried out in Schoeller’s laboratory in Gams, Switzerland,
which provides facilities for chemical analysis and microbiological studies.
The Sevelen facility also will feature a new, state-of-the-art automated washing system for
stretch wovens and knits. Production of both wovens and knits will continue to comply with the
bluesign® ecological standard for textiles.
June 5, 2012
