Walter Weidelich is a knitter by passion. Since 2017, he has been managing the knitting mill of Fuchshuber in Balingen. The experienced knitter’s heart beats for his profession. His greatest joy is when a demanding knitting job works out fine – a bit like a musician whose main goal is the applause ending a concert.

Walter, how long have you been working for Fuchshuber and in what postion?

I have been working for Fuchshuber since 2017 and am a knitting mill manager. At that time, Mr. Fuchshuber was about to sell the company to today's parent company Concordia. At that time, Mr. Fuchshuber and I already knew each other: We had had our own knitting mill in the family for over 20 years, since the 70s. As contract knitters, we regularly worked for Fuchshuber.
Mr Fuchshuber and I came together in 2017. Luckily, because here’s my jackpot. It's challenging work, the team is great, we have a great boss and a real good atmosphere. In the mornings, I often tell my wife: I’m not going to work, I’m pursuing my hobby.

What are your duties?

Managing a knitting mill includes assigning staff members to their jobs, setting the machine and creating samples. Regular repairs of the circular knitting machines are also part of my job. Then the monitoring of incoming and outgoing goods as well as monitoring of quality control. The latter is very time-consuming, because our quality standards require regular inspection of at least one entire piece of each machine. Otherwise, mistakes may creep in that the knitter cannot even notice, because he sees only a few meters of fabric when cutting it.
We work one single-shift. This may not sound like much compared to a knitting mill in the clothing sector, but we have a different product. The vertical range of manufacture and our work with sophisticated special yarns are unique, too.
In addition, we prepare new patterns almost every day; I remember the first weeks I worked here. We had to sample a glass Kevlar fabric. "It's going to be difficult," many told us. In fact, some unsuccessful attempts had already been made, so there were only a few remaining coils of the material. From these few scattered coils, we managed to produce two or three meters of knitted fabric. Very convincing two or three meters, we must say. Ever since, several machines have been producing this fabric. It has become known as our Cutex.

Can you tell us about a highlight at Fuchshuber?

Hm, that was probably the purchase of the Monarch knitting machine, an incredibly flexible and quick to change double-face machine. I felt as if I had gotten my hands on a Ferrari: the machine runs at 20 rpm, from morning to evening. Within a short period of time, this machine paid off. Truth be told, this machine requires a great deal of know-how and good maintenance to run efficiently – and we’re glad to provide this.