Business Description

Uster Technologies Ltd is the leading high technology instrument manufacturer of products for quality measurement and certification for the textile industry. The Group provides testing and monitoring instruments, systems and services that allow optimization and certification of quality through each individual stage of production; from the raw textile fiber, such as cotton, wool or synthetic filament yarns, to the final finished fabric. The Uster Group provides the benchmarks that are a basis for the trading of textile products at assured levels of quality across global markets.

Consumers of textile products around the world demand quality in the products they use, ranging from garments, apparel and home furnishings through to industrial and technical textiles such as safety belts and airbags.

All the way through the production process, from the raw textile fiber, such as cotton, to the final finished fabric, manufacturers have a desire to measure and monitor the process in order to optimize quality and to maximize efficiency. They want to ensure the production of materials that meet the requirements of their customers. For example, the quality and feel of a light cotton shirt or a suit depends upon the quality of the yarns used in production and on the effectiveness of the weaving or knitting process to produce a ‘fault-free’ fabric.

Uster Technologies Ltd provides instruments, systems and services that enable the textile industry to manufacture optimum quality and competitive products “from fiber to fabric”. The company has a long history as the leader in textile electronics. For more than 60 years, its testing and monitoring solutions have enabled the production of the finest fibers, yarns and fabrics making it a trusted partner to the industry.

Commitment to state of the art technology ensures the comfort and feel of the finished product – satisfying the demands of a sophisticated market. Uster Technologies Ltd understands the requirements for fault-free products, helping its customers to benefit from its applied knowledge and experience – to think quality, think USTER®.

Operational organization

The Group is headquartered in Uster, Switzerland and operates through a worldwide market organization complemented by technology centers. There are three technology centers, in Uster (Switzerland), in Knoxville (U.S.) and in Suzhou (China), that serve as production facilities and competence centers for the development of our products. The Swiss and American facilities are certified according to the ISO 9001 standard. The Uster Technologies Ltd facility is focused on products for yarn testing and on fabric quality assurance. The Knoxville facility, initially acquired as part of the acquisition of Spinlab in 1990, is focused on products for fiber testing and gin process control. The Suzhou facility was set up in 2005 and is focused on low cost development and assembly operations as well as allowing the Group to establish a local supply chain network to complement its global supply chain management activities.

Marketing and product management is coordinated out of the location where each product is developed and produced; Knoxville coordinates fiber testing and gin process control products while Uster Technologies Ltd coordinates yarn testing and clearing products. This maintains a close link between marketing and R&D for each product line and facilitates an efficient and effective innovation process.

The Group’s international sales and after sales network covers more than 50 countries, including all key textile markets. The sales and services network is composed of both subsidiaries and independent agents. The subsidiaries are located in the US, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Thailand and Turkey.

Recent market developments

The industry has been positively impacted by the shift of textile production away from Europe and North America to lower cost labor markets primarily located in Asia. The geographical distance and cultural gaps between predominantly Western end-customers and Asian production facilities has resulted in a loss of control of product quality throughout the supply chain. This has created a strong market for testing and measurement systems.

The use of the Group's products and services, as well as their measurement standards, creates trust in the supply chain. This mitigates the risk of purchasing poor quality textile products or materials that are inconsistent with the specified standards. Various government regulatory bodies rely on our equipment and standards in their evaluation of growers and producers. For example, both the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Chinese Fiber Inspection Bureau (CFIB) use USTER® products to classify cotton fiber for market trading. In addition, Uster Technologies Ltd is a major supplier of classing instrument systems to other cotton producing regions of the world, including major producing nations such as Australia, Brazil, Egypt, India, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.