In 2010 an amount of 21,563 tons of used textiles and shoes, an increase of 3.6 percent compared to the previous year (20,816 tons), found their optimal way to TEXAID. 18,768 tons were collected via the currently more than 3,700 red and white containers, whereas with a total of 2,795 tons (previous year 3,275 tons; minus 13 percent) the lasting downward trend of the past years in the biannual street collections unfortunately proved true once again, obviously in favor of the always available containers.

 

The still wearable clothes and shoes are sold at market prices in economically weaker countries, textiles scheduled for recycling are sent to European recycling companies for processing and re-utilization respectively. The preferred trading currency for this is the euro. Its permanent weakness towards the Swiss franc throughout 2010 lead to a significant decrease of the sales revenue: despite an increased amount of collected goods it dropped by one percent to 23.3 million francs compared to the 23.5 million francs of the previous year. “Tremendous efforts in all business areas were necessary to more or less cushion the negative development of the exchange rate,” says CEO Martin Böschen and adds that securing the jobs had always been the priority. «Short-time work or even job cuts were never considered.» On the contrary the size of the Swiss staff was increased by five to a total of 97 employees (as of December 2010). All in all TEXAID and its subsidiaries in Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary employ 272 people.

 

Although the company's proceeds in 2010 after deduction of all operational costs amounted to only 1.65 million francs (previous year 3.9 million francs), the grassroots groups (local Samaritan societies, Kolping families and youth organizations) could be paid 1.47 million francs. The six affiliated aid organizations received 1.13 million francs for their humanitarian tasks. All the payed out money is in turn used for the humanitarian engagements of the institutions.