Through thick and thin

There is a spirit of optimism in Schutterwald. Not in the sense of farewell, but rather a spirit of optimism such as a zest for action. Like a pioneering spirit. An appetite for the future. A joy for new technologies. Two drivers of this development are the managing partners Helmut Czichon and Dietmar Nagel. Looking back on the successes of 30 But the two entrepreneurs prefer to talk about tomorrow and the day after, about new markets and even more efficient machines. All in line with the motto: the next generation.

Herr Tietge has joined the chat Herr Czichon has joined the chat Herr Nagel has joined the chat

Herr Tietge

Dear Mr Nagel, dear Mr Czichon: Congratulations on 30 years of Thermotex. Tell me: how does such an anniversary feel?

Herr Czichon

That's very good. Because 30 years for us means 30 years of success and 30 years with good employees. The fact that we have always developed new innovations, focused on new products and are now active in 60 countries feels really good.

Herr Tietge

Sounds like you are very proud of your team and the company.

Herr Nagel

We started out as a two-man operation. Today, we are a well-positioned, medium-sized company, growing dynamically, technologically ahead of the pack and constantly developing. This not only makes us proud, but also gives us a great feeling. Also in view of the good people we have on board. We work as a team that can go through thick and thin together. And we have a strong family in the background that has supported us all along the way and continues to do so. Without our wives, this success would certainly not have been possible in this form.

Herr Tietge

If you want to understand how long 30 years are, you just have to remember the curiosities of 1988: Holland becomes European champion, the Dax is introduced on the German stock exchange and the world groans at the first real computer worm. Do you still remember the beginnings?

Herr Nagel

Very good, yes. We labelled clothes pegs, introduced the first computer printers, made or coated the patches by hand, stood at the machines ourselves and rapidly expanded the THERMOTEX range.
A year and a half after the company was founded, we attended the first big trade fair in Hanover. Those were really wild years. But it was amazing!

Herr Tietge

What gave you the idea of setting up a company for textile logistics? If you tell people this at the disco, you have to be a good dancer to make an impression...

Herr Czichon

That is certainly the case. The background to this was that my father-in-law, Dietmar Nagel's father, had gained experience in this field through his previous professional life. He realised that organisation and logistics in laundries
was not in the best order. At the time, the launderers were in a constant state of panic: sometimes the laundry had been mixed up, sometimes things were supposedly missing – and even if the launderers had done everything right or correctly, they had no way of proving it.

Herr Tietge

In other words, the real secret behind 30 years of success is obviously an obsession with orderliness...

Herr Czichon

You can say that again, right?

Herr Nagel

Dass wir beim Aufräumen helfen und Ordnung halten? Ich glaub schon. Wir sind ja sogar privat so.

Herr Tietge

Is it true that Thermotex was the first company in Germany to use QR codes?

Herr Czichon

At that time, they were still called matrix codes, and it was only later that the name QR became established. We brought software from the USA that was initially not used at all. In the early 90s, we used this QR code for the first time with the Rentex Group and quickly got the whole group excited about it. At that time, no other application was known in Germany.

Herr Tietge

Something like that is also an obligation...

Herr Nagel

No, it is an incentive to push these systems further. With electronic labels in the form of RF-ID and transponders, we are now taking the next step, which will bring further process optimisation. A QR code or a barcode has to be scanned by hand. A transponder, on the other hand, can be read very quickly and in large numbers via an antenna, regardless of its position.

Herr Tietge

The motto of the anniversary year is ‘the next generation’. Is that what this is about?

Herr Nagel

The initial focus is on new products in the area of heat sealers and printing systems. We want to develop our systems in the direction of Industry 4.0. We are convinced that it helps our customers when the machines can be networked more and more...

Herr Tietge

... so new technologies?

Herr Czichon

We are transforming ourselves from a product manufacturer to a system provider. But next generation also means that we want to help our employees to advance, to give them the chance to develop and create their own ideas. And, of course, it's also about the next generation of the family: that's why my daughter Julia is already sitting at the table today.
Nagel: A good mix has always been important to us: young people and old hands. And: that everything is in good flow. We are now again on the verge of a major upheaval in the next few years, when some of our employees will be entering their well-deserved retirement. We are continuously working on this topic so that experience can be passed on.

Herr Tietge

Thermotex uses codes and chips to make towels and bathrobes intelligent. This way, a piece of clothing knows what it is, where it belongs and how to treat it.

Herr Czichon

We make sure that each item of laundry in a cycle always finds its way back to the user and vice versa. To do this, we label around one billion items of laundry a year. The garments themselves certainly don't become any smarter as a result. A face cloth is a face cloth and a sock is a sock. But: the process used to advance this item of clothing in the cycle is crucial, so that, for example, its lifespan can also be determined. And then you can see: have I made a profit on this item of clothing? Have I been able to wash it 50 times – or maybe only 20?

Herr Tietge

Whoever is on the market – they rely on efficiency...

Herr Nagel

The industry is characterised by very strong competition, price erosion and very high cost pressure. In order to counteract this from our side, we try to enable our customers to achieve maximum cost savings with intelligent solutions. And thus a higher process efficiency.

Herr Tietge

To be a little more innovative every day, you first have to convince the whole team to want to go down this path.

Herr Czichon

We place great value on internal training, which we regularly conduct with our employees. We actively seek out trends and implement them as quickly as possible. This is how we offer our customers solutions. Not just for now, for today. But also for the future.

Herr Tietge

When people achieve something, they tend to say: ‘Okay, I've reached a point, that's enough for now.’ How do you manage to keep your employees hungry?

Herr Nagel

We are the drivers ourselves. Not only the management, but also the second and third levels. Our customers constantly encourage us to develop new solutions. Whether these are customer projects, research and development projects or organisational projects in-house.
Czichon: We motivate our employees so that they also provide input to the company again and again. This is how we manage to have new trends in the pipeline all the time.

Herr Tietge

Is this pace of innovation the reason why you are relying entirely on Germany as a location for development and production?

Herr Czichon

We have simply had good experiences with Germany as a location and our home on the edge of the Black Forest. Here we find highly qualified technicians in sheet metal processing and electronics. We also have excellent personnel: engineers, technicians, graphic designers, marketing people and tinkerers.

Herr Tietge

That's a good keyword: they say the people of the Black Forest have an inventor's spirit in their blood. Is that true?

Herr Czichon

Inventors and thinkers – yes. We like to take on technical challenges that the market may not yet be expecting. But we simply believe that it can be used in the market at some point and we have never been disappointed in this regard.

Herr Nagel

The location is incredibly important to us. This is also because we have had the best experiences with regional suppliers here.
It is not an issue for us to manufacture in low-wage countries because we know what concentrated expertise we have here. Besides, we are not in the consumer goods business, but supply products at the highest quality level because textile labelling is a matter of trust. Just imagine a workwear rental company that handles millions of items every year. If the barcodes or labels come off – the whole business would come to a standstill!

Herr Tietge

With chips in textiles, it won't be long before items of clothing and washing machines communicate with each other.

Herr Nagel

There are already trends in the industry. This is not necessarily only due to Thermotex...

Herr Tietge

...so the sock tells the machine how it wants to be washed?

Herr Czichon

Theoretically, it can already do that today, once the software has been configured. That's actually not a problem at all, and it's easy to teach the sock: ‘You're black, so you'll now be washed at 40 degrees.’ Then it communicates that and, accordingly, the sorting can also be carried out accurately and without errors.

Herr Tietge

And when the resources for this run low, does the ERP system automatically order more?

Herr Nagel

In the future, ERP systems will also order chips or labels from us. Even the procurement of laundry will be done this way.

Herr Czichon

If the stock in hospitals falls below a minimum level, an online signal is sent to the laundry. In the future, a decent system will know what is in the laundry, what is in stock and what is in use on the wards. This will also reduce stock levels because the items will turn over much faster.

Herr Tietge

If we look 30 years into the future: will people still be working in laundries in 2048?

Herr Czichon

We will have much more automation in our homes. Manual work will steadily decline. We will no longer have screens, but will work with holograms. And holograms will perhaps be placed one-to-one at people's sides. Accordingly, work steps can be specified and processes can be designed to be error-free. We see all these things in the future. For this, textile identification codes or transponders are needed so that these techniques can be used.

Herr Tietge

Will THERMOTEX still be operating primarily in Europe?

Herr Nagel

We are already becoming increasingly international...

Herr Czichon

... and are already present in over 60 countries. Thermotex is known in Australia, Japan and many other markets. By contrast, the Americas are a very difficult market for us. Import regulations, customs regulations, long distances. You need a very large dealer network to provide our service across a continent of this size. That's a topic for the next generation.