Steckborn, December 2006 – The BERNINA brand celebrates its 75^th anniversary in 2007. BERNINA is one of the Top 50 Swiss brands with the highest profile at home and abroad. Especially in the USA and Canada, BERNINA is the byword for innovative sewing and embroidery computers. Nailing its colours to the mast with the symbol of Switzerland in its logo, the internationally successful, tradition-steeped BERNINA International AG bases its success on Swiss values such as precision and durability.

It all began 75 years ago with the first home sewing machine, the 105 model, which the then company proprietor Fritz Gegauf marketed under the brand name of BERNINA: a high-quality, robust machine whose success spread far beyond Swiss borders. The BERNINA brand has always been a byword for Swiss precision and durability; today, it also stands for innovation and intelligent electronics.

With the electronic refinements they offer, BERNINA sewing and embroidering systems will amaze the even the most ambitious hobby sewers. Only recently, the brand caused a sensation in the sewing industry with an electronic stitch regulator (the BSR system). The secret is also out overseas: the company achieves 60% of its sales in the USA. In 2006, its international focus was acknowledged by a rebranding of Fritz Gegauf AG, BERNINA Nähmaschinenfabrik into BERNINA International AG. At the same time, the internationalization of markets led BERNINA International AG to acknowledge its hometown and incorporate the Swiss flag in its new logo.

“The positive international image of Switzerland, and the reputation of the Swiss as reliable, honest and rigorous-thinking partners gives our brand a considerable edge”, says company owner Hanspeter Ueltschi. The grandson of Fritz Gegauf and great-grandson of Karl Friedrich Gegauf – founder of the company and inventor of the hemstitch machine in 1893 – is now the fourth generation of his family to run the business, and has made BERNINA International AG a global player.

Today, BERNINA is seen as the epitome of a tradition-steeped Swiss brand with a strong potential for innovation. In the Anholt Nation Brands Index (NBI), Switzerland ranks in second place in an international comparison of sympathy values. BERNINA International AG has recognized this potential and the synergy effects associated with it, and is therefore banking on the advantages of Switzerland as a brand, even 75 years on. “The symbol of the Swiss cross functions internationally as a signal, saying ‘this product is solid, steady and dependable’”, explains Hanspeter Ueltschi. “A signal like this builds customer trust, which is exactly what we want.”

Photo caption:

BERNINA_Ueltschi.jpg: BERNINA Boss Hanspeter Ueltschi presents the new logo.

Photo: BERNINA International AG

Press contact:

BERNINA International AG
Central Marketing
Annett Kruse
Seestrasse, CH-8266 Steckborn, Switzerland
Tel. +41/(0)52 7621-206