Suedwolle
Yarn
Partnership length
12 years
Employees
1297
62% Female
38% Male
Location
31°N/120°E
Last audit
August 2017
How did you come to work with icebreaker?
"Previously in the yarn business and we had almost no connection to our customers, but with icebreaker our life changed. It became more exciting, it became more about value & we could see what the finished product looked like. The story of how founder Jeremy Moon put a mortgage on his house to start icebreaker and how much passion he brought into it is so fascinating & motivating."
What do you enjoy most about your relationship with icebreaker?
"I would almost call it a friendship. I know many of the icebreaker employees. I enjoy all my time with them. We share a lot of the same values. We have all the passion about wool; I mean this is something which is common for both of us – the philosophy, the nature, our philosophy of being a very clean and good company. It just fits together."
What are the values of Suedwolle?
"Suedwolle Group is a German company and their values are wide. The biggest value which I see in the Group is that we care about people. World wide we run programmes of emotional intelligence. We want to give people the feeling of care, support, trust, respect and that we listen to them. The other value is a diversity; we work with Italians for design, Germans for creativity & Chinese partners for execution. So, for us it is a perfect combination."
How do you work with icebreaker to create the highest quality yarn?
"We work with icebreaker in a different way than with most of our customers, because it is a fully controlled process from the fiber to the final product. We work together on every decision from water specifications, to yarn developments. We have many meetings & Skype conferences just to improve the quality. icebreaker is very strong in social responsibility so we have to follow the rules and it helps us all to produce a perfect product."
What does nature mean to you?
"Nature means a lot to me because I grew up in Bavaria, a very clean area that’s almost similar to New Zealand, so it’s hilly, there’s a lot of forests, we have a lot of rivers, and therefore in my whole youth I was always connected to the nature. During this time we didn’t have mobile phones and computers; we just were outside and played in the forests or played soccer. And, so it was a very strong relation. I am happy to see the improvement in China now which is making a lot of effort into environmental awareness."
How does Transparency play a role in your business?
"We would wish that we could get more checked for transparency and openness because we are a very clean company. Transparency would be a beautiful thing in the textile industry as many, many things go wrong, or are not done the right way, and it is just a good feeling to buy a piece of fabric or a cloth and it is produced under fair and good conditions."
Manfred Heinrich, CEO, Suedwolle
20 years' service
6 years' service
Sustainability isn’t just a feature of our products, it’s in the values and design of our business.
Read our transparency report
