VAUDE - 100 percent family-owned business

[fau ` de:] - is the German pronunciation of the initials of the company founder’s last name, Albrecht von Dewitz, who founded the company in 1974 in an old hops barn. The company is 100 percent family owned and operated, now in the second generation of the von Dewitz family. – see also “Antje von Dewitz at the Summit”.

VAUDE Sport GmbH & Co. KG designs, produces and markets outdoor recreational products of the VAUDE brand: functional clothing for outdoors, backpacks and bags, sleeping bags, tents, shoes, and camping accessories. 

The VAUDE brand and its products stand for mountain sports expertise, innovation, and social and environmental responsibility. We set out to become Europe's most sustainable outdoor brand by 2015, objectively and measurably. So we are really happy about the award “Germany’s Most Sustainable Brand 2015” from the renowned German Sustainability Award – more at VAUDE is Germany’s Most Sustainable Brand.

VAUDE’s headquarters are located in Obereisenbach, a village in sunny southern Germany close to the bordering countries of Austria and Switzerland. With a view of the Alps and Lake Constance, 508 highly motivated VAUDE employees work for the “Spirit of Mountain Sports” – see also Our Employees.

VAUDE Sport GmbH & Co. KG is primarily located on two sites: the headquarters in Obereisenbach with various buildings, and a sales branch in the Netherlands.

In addition, there are two factory outlets - one in Metzingen and one in Wadgassen - and various rented order rooms nationwide. The figures in this report are based exclusively on the company headquarters. There is one production facility at the headquarters in Tettnang-Obereisenbach.

In subsidiaries (joint ventures and 100-percent subsidiaries) there are other sales branches in Spain, the VAUDE Franchise GmbH and an office in Shanghai. The production facilities in China were sold to a previous partner; we no longer produce there.

One of our most important suppliers is VAUDE Vietnam. This production facility was founded in 2008 by VAUDE founder Albrecht von Dewitz. This company does not belong to VAUDE Sport GmbH &Co.KG and is thus not included in this report. Data from the production facility is taken into account with the information on the supply chain.
 

In 2014, a total of 2,904,147 products were produced. About one-third of the products were manufactured at our Tettnang-Obereisenbach location and VAUDE Vietnam. All other products were made on behalf of VAUDE by independent suppliers in Europe and Asia. More at Our Supply Chain

The development of the entire collection takes place in Tettnang-Obereisenbach, including initial ideas for products, evaluation of materials in our own testing laboratory, prototypes and finished engineering.

The entire administration department is also located here: in addition to management, there is also finances and accounting, human resources, marketing, IT and of course, environmental management. All domestic and international product sales are controlled by Tettnang-Obereisenbach. This includes product services, with a strong repair service to repair used products. More at VAUDE Repair Service

Central logistics is also located in Tettnang. Products for the European market are delivered here, tested, warehoused, commissioned and shipped to retailers – see also Inbound and Outbound Deliveries. North America and Asia are directly supplied by third party deliveries from the producers to distributors within each respective country.

The entire headquarters in Tettnang-Obereisenbach has environmental certification in accordance with EMAS and ISO 14001. This applies to the production of waterproof bike bags and backpacks in Obereisenbach. The Obereisenbach location is located in a mixed-use zone.

Since April 2015 VAUDE has its owen Bio-Canteen where employees can enjoy healthy breakfast, lunch and snacks. A few meters away from the administration building is one of our three factory outlets, which also houses the organically certified VAUDE Café.

And last but not least, the VAUDE Kinderhaus Childcare Center is located here. 31 children are currently enrolled and in 2011, it celebrated its 10th anniversary. VAUDE, together with the Bädleverein (a local open-air swimming pool association), saved the public swimming facilities from closing down and have since then leased the pool: “Create added value through commitment”.