Currently, we are experiencing a tense situation in trade, which also affects the order intake for us as a company producing in Austria. Retail sales are sluggish, and consumer spending on textiles is cautious. At the same time, we hear that other suppliers and their facilities in the industry are rather below average in capacity utilization, and we are simultaneously glad that this trend is not noticeable for us. For ourselves, we expect a slight improvement in the second half of the year. We anticipate a real upward trend next year.

The current price pressure is noticeable, which is why it makes sense from our point of view to optimize processes and use resources as efficiently and completely as possible. For example, we use almost 100 % of the wool waste from our production again. Our 250 kWp photovoltaic system on the roof of the production hall enables us to reduce our energy costs in the medium term.

From my point of view, there is a risk of deindustrialization in Europe due to high energy and labor costs. The pressure on the domestic industry is increasing. Costs cannot be passed on 1:1 to customers, which is why outsourcing will be unavoidable for many companies in the medium term without massive productivity increases. At the same time, however, it is evident how important it is to prevent deindustrialization, as this leads to complete dependence.