Start-ups
These two ladies prefer to pull the strings behind the scenes
The Covid pandemic obliged Cortina Löwer’s and Büsra Cetin’s employer of long standing to close Jenny Fabrics down in 2020. But what began as a tragic incident in fact went on to shape these two ladies’ destinies. Just over one year ago they set up their own joint company called Circolo Textil. By doing so, they joined a minority of female startups in the textile industry. Swiss Textiles paid them a visit.
For twelve long years, Cortina Löwer and Büsra Cetin worked together at Jenny Fabrics, the traditional textile manufacturer in Niederurnen. Löwer rose to the post of sales director while Cetin worked her way up to become sales manageress. “We always understood one another perfectly. We are straightforward and highly experienced,” Cetin tells us.
The shock announcement came at the end of April 2020: the company’s international business had collapsed because of the Covid pandemic. After 186 years it had to make all 96 employees redundant. Löwer and Cetin were among them. They both had to look around for new jobs.
We always understood one another perfectly. We are straightforward and highly experienced.
LOOKING BACK AT THE PAST WITH A SMILE: THE TWO BUSINESS OWNERS BÜSRA CETIN (R.) AND CORTINA LÖWER IN THEIR OFFICE.
Löwer (47) moved to a weaving mill in Appenzell where she took up the post of sales manageress. Soon afterwards, Cetin found a job in the internal sales department of a fabric specialist in Zurich. However, the 32-year-old soon realized: “I missed working with Cortina. I wanted to play an active role again, to take responsibility and exchange with customers on a daily basis.” Löwer laughs and says: “It was the same for me. I was passionate about negotiating with suppliers and visiting production sites.” She wanted to be involved in the entire process, from beginning to end. She could not really do so in her new job.
From work colleagues to co-founders
The former work colleagues always kept in touch and held animated discussions. Finally, in the spring of 2022 they decided to set up their own company: Circolo Textil AG. A kind of facilitator, adviser and network organizer on all matters pertaining to textiles. Their company was soon entered in the register of commerce. In August they moved into their office in Altendorf in the Canton of Schwyz. Just two years after the fateful turn of events in Niederurnen.
Now at long last we can play an active role in the whole project as we did before and become truly creative!
The two-women company works on a jobbing basis. Their task differs depending on the customers’ wishes and the intended function of the finished textile product. The owners do their own detailed research, gathering all the relevant information, e.g. about the fabric, price and pattern; they choose production sites and suppliers, arrange contacts. They go on to propose the final technical solution to their customers who work mainly with technical textiles, outer garment fabrics and home textiles.
Of course, it may be a good thing that some competitors laugh at us or underestimate us.
One year has now passed since their company’s inception. Löwer smiles and comments: “To begin with, we were surprised to see how smoothly things have gone up to now. In my heart of hearts I knew that everything would turn out well. Büsra and I had the great good fortune to be so familiar with the industry and to contribute such extensive experience. What is more, in the past we had already built up a big textile network.
“I prefer to stay in the background”
Other new company founders can only dream of such a story. Hardly any stumbling blocks or sleepless nights? “Of course, it may be a good thing that some competitors laugh at us or underestimate us,” Cetin says. But that does not matter. In any case, they prefer to work behind the scenes.
Is it typical of female entrepreneurs that they are not seeking a high profile? Cetin gives the matter a moment’s thought and says: “Yes, that may well be so. Men might prefer to make more noise.” But she finds such comparisons superfluous.
Most Swiss startups are founded by men
More than twice as many men as women became self-employed in Switzerland in 2020. According to an empirical study by the University of Applied Sciences of North West Switzerland and the Future Preneurship Verlag publishing house, 1.77 startups are founded by a man for every one set up by a woman. The “gender gap” seems to be particularly significant in Switzerland.
I do not think we are anything special just because we are two women.
Co-partner Löwer turns serious for a moment and adds. “The fact that so much emphasis is placed on the woman’s role bothers me. Even the subject of the request for this conversation – “Women in the Swiss textile industry” – is surprising; it gave me food for thought, she admits quite frankly. “Büsra and I set up Circolo because we are passionate about textiles. I do not believe we are special just because we are two women.” But as a matter of fact the industry does tend to be run by men.
Our lady entrepreneurs are far more concerned by the attitude to work taken by the “baby boomers” and the rising generation in the textile industry than by the “subject of women”. In Cetin’s words “today’s baby boomers are still passionate, but they do not all pass their interests and knowledge on to their successors.” On the other hand, they may themselves be the best example of just how far you can advance by sharing knowledge!