HERKA Frottier is an industrial company steeped in tradition that produces high-quality terry towelling products based on the strictest environmental standards. The family business was founded in 1927 and is an important employer in northern Lower Austria. Today, the factory is located in Kautzen, a town near the Czech border. HERKA Frottier has been focused on growth and export from the beginning and is at the forefront of technical development. HERKA stands for innovation, flexibility, diversity, delivery reliability and customer focus.
HERKA has been an OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 customer of OETI since 1998. We conducted the interview with Veronika Pfeiffer-Gössweiner, who is in charge of sustainability, innovation and marketing at HERKA.
What is the philosophy and strategy behind the manufacturing of your products?
HERKA is a family business that runs one of the most modern terry weaving mills and a textile finishing plant (TVG). Both factories produce and finish approx. 12,000 towels and 22,000 running metres of fabric daily in Austria and have 120 employees. This corresponds to an area of four football pitches per day. My husband, Mr Thomas Pfeiffer, is the fourth generation to run HERKA.
From a technical perspective, HERKA is one of the most modern and last terry weaving mills in Europe. Sustainability has always been a key focus for us, even before the term became fashionable. We’re a family business with a flat hierarchy. We also run our operations responsibly, so that our children can live happily in this world as well. This includes an eagerness and curiosity to constantly evolve, to continuously understand the needs of our customers and to focus on the goal of conserving resources.
What advantages do you see in the OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 certification/label?
The OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 certification is a label with a very high recognition value and it reassures consumers. It has long been the minimum standard for textile producers.
Why would you recommend OETI and working with us to others?
Everyone at OETI is always very professional and communicates clearly. Even when we needed a very urgent non-OEKO-TEX® test (parameters for GOTS), it was done quickly and without fuss.
Company information
- Name: HERKA GmbH
- Country: Austria
- Websites:
https://www.herka-frottier.at
https://www.sarom.at
- Additional details
• Locations: 1
• Number of employees: 80
• Size and type of plant:
Weaving mill with 21 weaving machines, three warping machines incl. GOM pattern chain warping machine, warp beam paternoster, etc., finishing in the sister company Textilveredelung Gmünd TVG
• Products: Terry products and terry fabrics
• Additional certifications: EMAS and ISO14001 since 1999 and GOTS since 2011; and, as already mentioned, OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 since 1998