#Textiles & Apparel / Garment

2020-05-07

Getzner Textil is taking innovative measures to protect its employees from coronavirus

The vocational trainees are also passionately committed to the production of face masks for their colleagues.(Image: GTAG)

In over more than 200 years of company history, Getzner Textil AG has already faced a few crises head on. However, the overriding motto has always been to not only overcome any seemingly insurmountable obstacles, but to also think outside the box and to create a fertile breeding ground for creative thinking and/or innovations. During the corona crisis, we also managed to mobilise resources and implement important measures in a very short time to protect the workforce and pre-emptively safeguard the business.

"We are willing to keep on learning"

“The health of our employees is our top priority. We therefore introduced efficient hygiene and protective measures at an early stage and also made every effort to successfully implement and adhere to them. The current situation is new for all of us and doubtlessly contributes to the general uncertainty. However, we are willing to keep on learning, to adjust our strategies accordingly and to do everything we can to jointly master this crisis,” says Getzner Textil AG CEO Roland Comploj. The Bludenz-based family business is therefore passionately committed to its membership of a Vorarlberg consortium dedicated to the manufacture of tested and certified surgical face masks for medical use and the healthcare sector. The high-quality and durable fabric required to produce these in large quantities is made by Getzner Textil. As a preventative measure, the company has also made face masks that cover the mouth and nose available to its own workforce as soon as possible. To guarantee their availability, Getzner has set up a dedicated sewing shop equipped with several industrial sewing machines that are manned on a three shift basis.

The high-quality and durable fabric for the surgical face masks is made by Getzner Textil. (Image: GTAG)

Disinfectants made in-house

The development of solutions to guarantee the best-possible protection for the workforce and the company premises was actively addressed at a very early stage. In order to prevent a shortage of disinfectants on the premises, they were simply manufactured on site by the experienced professionals in the Getzner Textil AG in-house laboratory. The skilled craftspeople in the in-house joinery and in the metalworking department also came up with the idea of designing practical stands for disinfectant dispensers, for example, which they also made available to all subsidiaries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The dispensers are currently refilled twice a day by designated employees. Around 120 litres of disinfectant are therefore needed and used at the Bludenz site every week. The extensive package of measures that was implemented as soon as possible also includes touchscreen styluses for operating the machines, physical distancing rules, a group meeting and contact ban as well as the provision of disposable or cotton gloves for the production workforce.

Getzner Textil AG employees from various different departments hard at work for the sake of occupational health and safety in the sewing shop set up exclusively for this purpose. (Image: GTAG)

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