Formesse's entire administration has been based in the Black Forest since 1947. Here, our customer service team liaises with bed retailers, new products are developed together with our partners, the entire supply chain from the yarn to the end product is coordinated and the high quality is finally checked.

We treat each other with respect and have flat hierarchies. We have a motivated team that supports change and our endeavours for greater sustainability, both on site and in everyday working life.

• Ø employed since: 17 years (2024)
• Length of service min: 1 year / max: 44 years
• Women/men ratio: 75% / 25%
• Team leadership: 4 women, 2 men
• Nationalities: 3
• Formesse Code of Conduct
• Formesse Key Values

Occupational safety & occupational medicine

• Risk assessments
• Fire protection & first aiders
• Health protection
• Occupational health care

 Whistleblower/complaints process

Job bike, direct insurance, healthy lunch offer, new social room

Heating:

• Connection to local heating in Löffingen by the beginning of 2025
• External wall insulation 2005

Electricity:

• PV system with 560 m², approx. 120,000 kWh per year
  - of which approx. 20% are for own consumption
  - the rest is fed into the grid
• Power supply: green electricity from the Löffingen public utility company
• LED lights: 80%

• Switch to environmentally friendly cleaning agents (2013)
• Switch to environmentally friendly office utensils (2013)
• Switch to paperless office since 2016
• Reduction in paper consumption by 87% since 2019

approx. 3,100m² of nature in cooperation with the Southern Black Forest Nature Park

• Flowering meadows
• Wild hedges, trees, shrub and insect beds
• Pond and wetland area

We knit our cotton yarns and threads exclusively in Germany, and have been doing so in the same knitting rooms for decades. A large number of yarn cones are mounted on a knitting machine at the same time and thousands of knitting needles work together. The cotton yarns or threads are brought together with an ultra-fine elastane thread and knitted into a very durable, long-lasting jersey fabric with a particularly large number of small stitches. Now, with an elastane content of just 3%, our fabrics achieve the desired exceptional elasticity.

• Country of production: 100% Germany (Swabian Alb)
• Supplier questionnaire for more transparency in progress

In the next step, our fabrics are finished and dyed in Germany. Our partners are continuously investing in state-of-the-art facilities to guarantee the quality of our products, but also to produce in an increasingly sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Textile finishing is a highly complex process that uses a relatively high amount of water and energy, as the fabrics have to be washed, bleached, dyed and dried. Consumption has been reduced as far as possible and the finishing processes optimised for decades due to the high German environmental standards, but also to minimise costs.

• Our finishing (finishing & dyeing) takes place 100% in Germany
• Supplier questionnaire for more transparency in progress

We sew our products for the most part in the nearby Black Forest region or in our own manufacturing plant in neighbouring Alsace. 

The now colourful bale goods are laid out partly manually, partly with machine support, cut by hand with an electric knife and finally sewn, checked, folded and packed by seamstresses. This is physically demanding work, mostly carried out by women. 

• 92% ready-made garments within a radius of 90 km from our site in Löffingen
• 8% ready-made garments in Poland (as of summer 2024)
• Supplier questionnaire for more transparency in progress

Location: Löffingen, Black Forest // Markolsheim, Alsace

• Ø employed since: 8 years (2024) // 15 years (2024)
• min: <1 year / max: 36 years // 1 year / max: 42 years
• Female/male ratio: 73% / 27% // 88% / 12%
• Team leadership: 2 women // 1 woman
• Pay according to job profile (activity, training, affiliation to the company)
• Nationalities: 7 // 1
• Sustainability on site: see administration above

Finally, the finished products are all stored at our main site in the Black Forest and are dispatched from here. Here, too, the work is predominantly manual, supported by rolling packing trolleys, forklift trucks, conveyor belts and a lifting device for the heavy parcels. Furthermore, the routes are optimised so that no unnecessary distances have to be covered for this labour-intensive work.

• Ø employed since: 14 years (2024)
• min: <1 year / max: 44 years
• Women/men ratio: 75% / 25%
• Team management: several members
• Nationalities: 3
• Formesse Code of Conduct
• Formesse Key Values

Occupational safety & occupational medicine:

• Risk assessments
• Fire protection & first aiders
• Health Protection
• Occupational health care

 Whistleblower/complaints process

Job bike, direct insurance, healthy lunch offer, new social rooms

Heating:

• Connection to local heating in Löffingen (wood chip system)
• Underfloor heating with hot/cold zones
• Automatic roller shutters (hot air containment)

Electricity:

• PV system with 1366 m², approx. 215,000 kWh
  - 100% of which is fed into the grid
• From mid/end 2024 new PV area with approx. 250 m²
  - of which part of the self-consumption is covered
• Power supply: green electricity from Löffingen municipal utilities
• 100% LED lights

• Switch to environmentally friendly cleaning agents (2013)
• Switch to environmentally friendly office utensils (2013)
• CO2-neutral shipping via DPD and DHL
• 97% of outbound logistics by land (2022)

approx. 5,800m² of nature in cooperation with the Southern Black Forest Nature Park

• Flowering meadow
• Ruderal area
• Lean meadow (solar area)
• Percolating paved driveway with wild herbs
• Wild hedges, trees, shrub and insect beds