What is the Swiss Army doing in Czechia?

The answer is so simple and yet it is complicated, too. At the beginning of March this year, a presentation of ADVANSA bedding brands spotlighting the flame-retardant bedding products collection Securelle® was given in Tanvald, an small Czech town idyllically situated in the Iser Mountains of North Bohemia. The organiser was the Swiss bedware producer Kyburz – BfB Bettwarenfabrik Bern, which was responsible, in collaboration with the Czech weaving company SebaT, for developing a collection of bedware in Securelle® quality. Representatives of Armasuisse, whose core activity is to procure systems and material for the Swiss army and other customers from the Swiss Federation.  Among the guests were also representatives of various Swiss clinics and hospitals, psychiatric units and central laundries as well as the ADVANSA Securelle® market manager, Luciano Colasanto.

The bedware collection developed by Kyburz – BfB Bern, along with partners SebaT  and HATON from the Netherlands, and also knitting company Mattes & Ammann from Meßstetten, includes inlet fabrics for quilted blankets and pillows that can also be filled with Securelle® filling fibres, bedlinen, jersey-knit fitted sheets and mattress cover fabrics. These fabrics are obtainable in a choice of white or coloured, in plain woven or elaborate striped jacquard quality.

The special feature all share is that, compared with other inherently flame-retardant fabrics, Securelle® is exceptionally soft and has a pleasant, natural touch – an especially important aspect for bedware. Both the fabrics and the filling fibres provide a greater degree of safety and satisfy the most important European fire norms achievable for polyester fibres, such as DIN 4102 B1 and B2, BS 5438, BS 5867 Part 2, Type B, BS 5852 Part 2, and the various European norms for bedware (EN 14533). Securelle® fabrics are not only aesthetically attractive textiles but also lend themselves to all manner of applications, both utility and decorative.  

In addition to the presentation of this new bedware collection in flame-retardant DACRON® polyester, the event attendees still had ample time the following day to get to know their host company, SebaT. The company’s roots go back to the beginning of the 19th century, when the then largest mechanical cotton mill in Central Europe was set up in the Tanvald region. Today, SebaT is a joint-stock company and member of the HYBLER Group with some 700 employees occupied in spinning, doubling, weaving, yarn dyeing, dyeing and finishing as well as producing finished products at four Czech sites.

The organiser of the event, Kyburz – BfB Bettwarenfabrik Bern, is based in Kehrsatz, Switzerland, an up-and-coming small town in the Bern region. Founded in 1912, the company was taken over in 1998 by the furniture and bed company Utiger in Bern and established as an independent joint-stock company under the name of BfB Bettwarenfabrik Bern AG – Kyburz Bettwaren. The company produces bedware and mattresses as well as bedlinen. Specialist retailers, decoration businesses and furniture retailers as well as private and public property outfitters count among its clients.

The visitors also gained full benefit of the tourism aspect of the event over the two days. On the day of departure, they had the opportunity to take in the historical splendour of the capital, Prague, the Golden City on the Vltava, which is just two hours from Tanvald by car.

All in all, the event proved to be a resounding success and demonstrated that the ADVANSA brand for flame-retardant fabrics and filling fibres, Securelle®, is becoming increasingly popular with partners and end users for bedware applications. Securelle® is always the first choice, especially for institutional users, when safety and fire prevention are the top priority. What’s more, it helps to cut costs without having to do without comfort or good looks.