Ortovox has been awarded Leader Status by the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) for the second consecutive year for its progressive commitment to safe and healthy working conditions, viable wages and reasonable working hours throughout the supply chain. Leader Status is the highest award for fair working conditions given by the garment industry’s regulatory body.
With its ProtACT2024 promise, a five-year plan to achieve an even more demanding and comprehensive standard of social responsibility, the German provider of avalanche protection equipment and wool-based mountain clothing is now also launching a five-year plan to achieve a broader range of social and environmental goals by 2024, including climate neutrality, PFC-free products, garment repair innovations, 60 percent European production and 100 percent transparency in wool production, maintaining FWF Leader Status.
Ortovox is owned by the Outdoor division of the German-based Schwan-Stabilo Group, which also includes Deuter Sport, Maier Sports and Gonso. The group says it adheres strictly to its own social charter and is thus committed to adhering to the core standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The Outdoor division of the group has committed itself to the working guidelines of the FWF. Deuter was awarded Leader Status by the FWF in the summer for the seventh time in a row since 2013. It announced this year that, from summer 2020, only products without perfluorinated and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFC) would be manufactured for the brand to preserve nature and the health of customers. To ensure their water- and dirt-repellent properties, the company claims to use health- and environment-friendly DWR (Durable Water Repellency) coatings that completely dispense with PFC. Maier Sports and its subsidiary company Gonso have been Fair Wear members since 2011. Maier Sports reached a monitoring percentage of 82 percent in 2018.
While total sales of the Outdoor division of the Schwan-Stabilo Group fell slightly by 0.6 percent to €168.3 million in the last financial year, the Ortovox brand closed with double-digit sales growth thanks to its consistent positioning as a mountaineering brand for summer and winter sports, as reported in the last issue of The Outdoor Industry Compass.
