About the Company

 Our mission statement encompasses the long-term goals and behavioral principles of all BERNINA Textile Group enterprises. It enables all employees to understand their activity as part of a whole. All employees are charged with making their contribution to the actualization of our mission statement in their day-to-day actions.

 We are an independent family business and want to remain as such. We develop, manufacture and sell top-quality goods and services for the textile market. Our competen­cies are developing, manufacturing, procuring and marketing of domestic sewing and embroidery systems. In addition it includes software, sewing accessories, fabrics and services for our markets. We perceive the rapid pace of change in the economy, technology, environment and society as a challenge. Our response is innovative strength, flexibility, the will to achieve and efficient operation. In order to safeguard and expand our competitive position, we choose appropriate locations worldwide for our activities. Steckborn is and remains the center of product development. For production, we make optimum use of the Steckborn and Thailand locations.

Our customers are the focus of our activities. Our market performance is geared to the needs of textile creation in the fields of embroidery, quilting, home textiles, garment sewing and crafts. BERNINA products and services provide our customers with genuine benefits and fulfill their expectations. Our products are at the technological cutting edge, and are characterized by high functionality and simplicity of use. In principle we are active worldwide, and focus on those markets which are economically attractive. In the markets with which we deal, we aspire to achieve a leading position with BERNINA Textile Group products.

All-round quality in everything we do is the central tenet of the BERNINA Textile Group. All-round quality means optimal fulfillment of customer needs, i.e. with the cost-efficient use of resources of all kinds. Customers – in-house and external – are cared for by all staff. Through an appropriately and professionally upgraded quality-management system we ensure that quality is planned and that the specified quality is monitored and achieved. Self-monitoring is of great importance.

Motivated, efficient and well-trained employees are the cornerstone of our success. Our working atmosphere is characterized by trust, respect and openness. We expect and encourage enterprising thought and action on all levels. The basis for this is the provision of comprehensive, purpose-suited information and corresponding room for maneuver. We support the personal and career development of our employees by means of demanding and challenging tasks as well as training and further education in interpersonal leadership and professional skills. All employees are jointly responsible for keeping their professional know how and skills up-to-date. Pay is based on market forces, the employee‘s role and performance, and on corporate results.

We safeguard the future of the company through high self-financing and earning power. A large share of the cash flow is to be reinvested. Resources are allocated with a view to maximize lasting earnings potentials.

Teamwork and process orientation are important requirements for achieving our goals. We are committed to a policy of openness, constructive criticism and dialogue based on mutual trust. We are loyal to and honest with customers, the company, our supervisors, colleagues and employees. With our suppliers we cultivate a relationship based on partnership, with the aim of receiving zero-defect, reasonably priced products and services on schedule. We are open to the new, and thus committed to the steady improvement of our overall services. We place common business interests before self-interest. We respect the laws, regulations and guidelines to which we are subject.

We lead with concretely formulated goals in a future-, initiative- and team-oriented manner. We solve problems cooperatively and appropriately. We delegate responsibility and corresponding competencies. We make clear-cut decisions, respect them, and implement them with decisiveness and conviction. The supervisors‘ specific responsibility lies in the selection, informing and support of their employees, as well as in goal formulation and success monitoring. Supervisors distinguish themselves by fair and open communication, and serve as examples.

Health and safety at work is a shared task of the BERNINA Textile Group. Management serves as an example for employees, and provides for basic health-and-safety-related conditions by implementing technical and organizational measures, as well as providing for training and further education. Staff have a high degree of personal responsibility. They look out for their own personal safety and health, at work and in their private lives, as well as that of their colleagues in the work environment.

The BERNINA Textile Group endeavors to bear in mind the safeguarding of natural resources in all its activities. We avoid and reduce resource consumption in order to lower environmental pollution such as emissions and waste stemming from our overall business activity. Unavoidable waste is recycled or disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner. Within the bounds of our capabilities, we look after natural resources by taking environmental aspects into account in the planning stages of product and organizational projects, and treating them as requirements. Within the context of our environmental-protection activities, we publish information necessary for the understanding of our environmental performance.

We are faced with the constant challenge of recognizing risks early on, keeping a close watch on potential risks, and preventing or reducing to as low a level as necessary their effects on the company, employees and the environment. Risk management is a permanent task of the department heads. All employees are required to be aware of risks in their areas of responsibility and to minimize them as far as economically sensible, or to draw the attention of the department heads to them. Standardized processes help us to identify, evaluate, control and monitor corporate risks.

Claude Dreyer, CEO BERNINA Textile Group 

Steckborn, 11.30.2011