Austrian companies form new joint venture to make protective medical masks; production to reach 12 million pieces a month.

During these unprecedented challenging times posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, what was known as regular or normal no longer exists.  With conventional trade more or less come to a halt for many businesses, suppliers and manufacturers around the world are looking outside their normal business dealings and restructure their operations.

Thus with day-to-day operations in jeopardy due to cancelled orders, delays and strict lockdown measures, many businesses have to think and act outside the box in order to survive or find new causes for their existence.

Masks produced by Hygiene Austria

Many are responding to the call of medical professionals, health care workers and service providers decrying the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), including gowns, masks, aprons and other items that help to protect medical and frontline staff from infection while treating coronavirus patients or handling items that may  be contaminated by the virus.

Now, two Austrian companies, both leaders in their fields, have gone one further by forming a new company to answer the surging demand for high quality medical-grade masks for their domestic and European markets as from May 2020.

"Masks will continue to play an important role in our daily lives and we are proud that we were able to achieve our goal of an industrial production so quickly together with our partner Palmers,” says Lenzing AG's CEO Stefan Doboczky.

Lenzing AG, a producer of specialty fibres made from renewable raw material wood, and Palmers Textil AG, a well-established brand of lingerie, have joined forces to found “Hygiene Austria LP GmbH”. The joint-venture is a multi-million-Euro investment in which Lenzing AG holds 50.1% and Palmers Textil AG holds 49.9%, encompassing a modern production infrastructure with secured  raw materials for protective masks production, according to a press release today.
To start off, in a significant move to help combat the Covid-19 pandemic while ensuring a long-term supply of critical products of high quality.  The new company will be producing the so-called mouth-nose protective masks (MNS) and surgical protective masks of class EN14683 with plans to increase its capacities to over 25 million masks per month over the coming weeks eventually to expanding geographically in due course.
In the announcement, top executives of the two respective companies explained that in order to sustainably secure domestic supply now and in the future and to strengthen the business location at Wiener Neudorf, the two companies have now set a milestone with their own competence centre for hygiene based in Austria.
“We decided to pool our knowledge, network and experience in a competence center for hygiene together with our partner Palmers. The aim of this joint venture is to provide the citizens of Austria and Europe with the best possible protection through locally manufactured, high-quality products,” says Stefan Doboczky, CEO of Lenzing AG.
Luca Wieser, member of the Board of Palmers, says Palmers and Lenzing complement each other perfectly.  “We have many years of experience in the manufacture and distribution of textile products.  Lenzing brings its technological experience in the hygiene sector, the know-how regarding procurement and raw material and knowledge in the field of plant engineering.“
“We are not only connected by textile experience and “made in Austria”, but also by the will to act quickly now and to do something for the protection of citizens - we see this as our duty to society.  We are entrepreneurs and we are proud of our country,” continues Tino Wieser,another  member of the Board of Palmers.