How fair can “Made in China” be?

Short and sweet:

• If produced regionally in the EU, our products would cost over 200 euros due to the lack of infrastructure.

• In Zhejiang we have been working in partnership with our producers for years and have a five-person FLSK team on site.

• In the production facilities we can guarantee fair working conditions such as minimum wage, free employee representation and well-paid overtime.

Zhejiang - a diverse province in southeast China. On the one hand, it is characterized by agriculture as a “land of fish and rice”. On the other hand, it is a global hub for the production of stainless steel products. And FLSK? In the middle!

But why not Germany, at least Europe? The manufacturing issue was already an omnipresent topic in the first few months of the company. Endless inquiries and conversations followed. From the idea of ​​converting neighboring industries such as German plant engineering to the Polish-Czech production facility. The sobering realization: regional production remains a pipe dream for the time being. The core problem with all variants is economic efficiency. Because we simply wouldn't be able to sell a drinking bottle for over 200 euros.

China - the stainless steel expert

Germany and entire parts of Europe have withdrawn more and more from the manufacturing sector for many years. At the same time, the production of stainless steel products has increasingly shifted to Asia - among many other industries. Economical production in our latitudes? Impossible! The infrastructure has simply disappeared. In contrast, the Chinese region of Zhejiang continued to professionalize. This is reflected in the very short production routes. The entire production of FLSK and muki takes place within a radius of 50 kilometers - from the steel sheet to the final packaging. Unthinkable in Germany! Also no secret: the longer route to Munich, which we don't ignore .

Far away and yet so close

We are thousands of kilometers away from our suppliers in China. And a different culture. What does that mean for us? Create closeness - as best as possible. Because we live a fair coexistence in Munich and Zhejiang. The basis for this is that we have been working with our suppliers on an equal footing since 2015. The focus is on joint development over the years. We do not follow the usual local hunt for the cheapest provider, but rather focus on long-term partnerships. We achieve this through personal exchange, especially during Quentin's on-site visits several times a year. The second building block is the 5-person FLSK Team China, which we introduce to you here . Our production experts Mater, Xiaoli, Linda, Dave and Hu (cover photo from left to right) visit our production facilities every day to check quality. The picture shows the FLSK Team China during an on-site visit by Quentin.

What exactly does “fair” mean?

But for us, quality doesn’t just mean producing high-quality, long-lasting products. Quality also includes the human component. We employ our 5-person FLSK China team directly. Here we pay the same as our colleagues in Munich. We also cover social security benefits.

External audits by the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) are carried out annually for our direct suppliers. This gives us an objective assessment of the working conditions in the factories. These are mostly classified as “good”. The picture gallery below accompanies the production process of our main supplier.

• All employees are voluntarily contracted and there is no child or prisoner labor.

• All companies have freely elected employee representatives who meet regularly and can raise concerns.

• The pay of factory employees is equal to or higher than the regional minimum wage (our main producer pays 45% more).

• Overtime is only worked voluntarily and is compensated with a surcharge of 150% (weekdays) or 200% (weekends).

• All employees are provided with extensive protective equipment.