INTERNATIONAL
Andreas Holzer, member of the Business Management Team of the Bardusch Group, has been appointed the new President of the European Textile Services Association (ETSA). He was elected President for the next three years.
Holzer, member of the management board of the Bardusch Group, takes on the role of Thomas Krautschneider, CEO of the Austrian company Salesianer. ETSA members held their first meeting on September 8th under the presidency of Holzer.
“I am honored to be President of ETSA. Its main task is to represent the members of the association, who are leading textile service providers, their suppliers in Europe and national associations. “He said the Covid-19 crisis had underscored the importance of industrial laundries as local suppliers to vital businesses.
“Customers such as hospitals and food companies have recognized how resilient and reliable our branch is. We are on site and can supply you with hygienically clean textiles – quickly and flexibly at any time. It is true that we have always done this. It's just that in the past the services and skills of textile service providers received less public attention, ”said Holzer.
Holzer, who has an engineering qualification from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), is a member of the management of the German company bardusch Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG and responsible for the operation of the non-Bardusch group of German companies.
For three years he has also been CEO of bardusch AG (Switzerland). As CEO from 2008 to 2018, he developed the company into one of the leading textile service providers in Switzerland.
Holzer would like to use the increased public awareness of the advantages of using textile service providers during the Covid-19 crisis to improve the reputation of the industry in the long term. “Customer proximity, delivery security, speed and high hygiene standards are the defining characteristics of textile service providers. We will also start a number of new campaigns, ”said Holzer. “Our business model is sustainable and corresponds to the current way of thinking in society with the shift from single-use items to reusable products and a circular economy. Our industry is fully committed to sustainability. This means durable textiles, energy efficiency, optimization of water consumption, environmentally friendly cleaning agents, short local supply chains and the assumption of social responsibility towards 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 service industry is an important part of the European economy. In recent years the market has grown in almost all segments and, according to a study, could grow to a turnover of around 46 billion euros in the next few years.
