BWK Bremen
The Bremer Woll-Kämmerei was founded as a public limited company in 1883. The site of the plant: an area of 400,000 sq.m. on the banks of the River Weser in Bremen-Blumenthal. Still viable today thanks to its size, its favourable traffic links, and ample, good water resources.
At the beginning of the 1960s, BWK, which had already survived wars, inflation, revolutions and economic crises, saw itself confronted with new challenges. The development of labour costs and of exchange rates as well as the liberalisation of imports were endangering the competitiveness of the combing plant.
In an unparalleled tour de force on the investment front, the plant was totally restructured. BWK was created a second time, with the most modern technology and with productivity improved many times over. The plant in Bremen-Blumenthal developed into the biggest of its kind worldwide on a single site.
A new wind of change has dominated the scene at BWK since the 1980s. As a result of structural changes in international trade with wool and wool products, the company makes the turnaround to full market orientation. The former commission combing plant becomes a player of international standing offering tops of wool, man-made fibres and blends. The export share rises to 68 percent of total deliveries.
However, despite all the intensive efforts, the serious crisis of the wool textile industry in the 1990s did not leave BWK entirely unscathed. Consequently, BWK had to adopt suitable measures to adjust to the vastly changed conditions of the world market.
The beginning of the new millennium also marked the start of a new era at BWK. Since mid-2000 BWK AG has had a new strong partner at its side: Elders Australia Limited. Together with the wool division of Elders, it has for the first time been possible to close the chain from the farmer through to the spinner. By setting up joint ventures in the wool trading business it has been possible to exploit synergies and thus to achieve significant improvements in efficiency in raw wool purchasing, in the production of top and in customer support. These measures have strengthened further the position of BWK as one of the world-wide leading suppliers of top.
“Every Bremen citizen has the right to three goes”: this motto of the people in Bremen also applies to BWK. At great effort and expense, the combing plant in Bremen was set up for the third time in 2004. In this ambitious project, the production sequences were newly structured and adjusted to incorporate the state of the art in the field of wool processing. Since 2004 BWK in Bremen is one of the most cost effcient combing plants in the world.