Since the worldwide structural shift in the textile industry, only a handful of companies remain in the former textiles heartland of the Swabian Alps. One of these companies is the Albstadt based underwear manufacturer Comazo.

Around 10 million items of underwear a year are sold by this fully integrated family business, and the entire range is certified in accordance with the human-ecological requirements of Oeko-Tex Standard 100.

In-house production

One of the last German underwear companies, Comazo continues to handle its own production: all of the manufacturing steps are carried out by around 470 staff in a number of operations in Germany, Romania, Croatia and Russia.

Production is in-house and includes finishing, cutting, sewing, packing and shipping facilities. In its textile facilities in Albstadt fabrics are bleached, dyed, finished and cut using the modern processes.

The production volumes amount to roughly 55,000 pieces of underwear for women, men and children per day, and the focus is on lingerie and functional underwear of all kinds.

Portfolio range

The Comazo product portfolio ranges from basic underwear (comazo) to classy lingerie (comazo black), functional underwear for sports and leisure (comazo active), as well as underwear for the specific requirements of the young at heart (comazo platin) and fair trade underwear (comazo earth).

Special collections have also captured new clientèle: For example, the work underwear and protective underwear produced by Comazo provide protection against burns for fire-fighters, the company reports. The specially developed health care underwear produced by comazo med is tailored to the specific requirements of a range of medical conditions such as neurodermatitis.

Sustainability

Dr Christoph Maier, the company director, said: “In line with our motto We make favourite underwear, feel-good factor is our driving force. For a special feel-good factor, the manufacturing process is also of primary importance. The sustainability of our planet and its preservation for future generations must be our most important concern. That is why a part of the philosophy of Comazo is that the production of our underwear meets the highest social, human and ecological standards.”

The company places an emphasis on environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes – waste water is tested, pre-treated and then fed into a separate purification system. In 2009, a heat recovery system was introduced at their headquarters in Albstadt, improving the balance of CO2 on a sustained basis through optimising their level of energy efficiency.

Fair Trade Public Award 2014

The company has recently won a Fair Trade Public Award in Berlin, for its commitment to fair trade and for its employees, who modelled the bio-underwear from the comazo|earth collection themselves and who talked about their world of underwear in company video clips.

Comazo|earth is the first widely available underwear collection for men, women and children in Germany that is produced from Fair Trade-certified, organic bio-cotton and that also complies with the strict GOTS criteria. The fabric is created and cut in Germany, and the items are put together and packed in Croatia and Russia.

www.oeko-tex.com