Patrick Hohmann

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Patrick Hohmann (2018)

Patrick Hans Hohmann (* 1950 in Alexandria , Egypt; heimatberechtigt in Zurich ) is a Swiss entrepreneur and pioneer of bio - cotton .

Life

Patrick Hohmann's parents came from different worlds. The Irish-born mother Ellen Collins, one of her ancestors was the Irish freedom fighter Daniel O'Connell , was born in France in 1920. After the occupation by the Germans in 1940, her family fled to London. Ellen Collins applied to the Royal Air Force as a teletypist and ended up in Alexandria. Gerhart Hohmann, the Swiss father born in 1910, worked in Winterthur for the cotton trading company Reinhart AG (later known for the Oskar Reinhart collection) . On their behalf he came to Egypt. In 1949 he first became a partner in the Escher AG domiciled there, which he later took over entirely.

Patrick Hohmann was born the second of three sons and spent his early childhood in Alexandria. He attended the French-speaking Swiss school there , where he also learned Arabic . In 1956 the Egyptian President Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal Society . Because of the resulting international conflict ( Suez Crisis ), the Hohmann family temporarily moved to safety in Sudan . In 1961, the father's cotton company was nationalized by Egypt. The father then ran the cotton trade from Sudan and was expropriated there a second time in 1971.

From 1961 Patrick Hohmann attended schools in Switzerland. First he learned German in Celerina , then he went to the monastery school in Einsiedeln and finally to the college in Schwyz . In 1970 he passed the Matura . Interested in a practice-oriented degree, he went to the Technikum für Textilindustrie in Reutlingen (Baden-Württemberg) to become a textile engineer . In 1972 Hohmann married his Swiss girlfriend, who moved to Reutlingen. In addition to his studies, he worked in spinning mills and took on a managerial role at the age of 26. In 1979 the family of six returned to Switzerland and settled in Meierskappel . Hohmann started his own business. Inspired by his wife, he began to deal with anthroposophy . The children went to the Rudolf Steiner School and this also influenced his entrepreneurial orientation. Instead of the shareholder value , an all-holder value should be used , which means a balance between financial, human and ecological demands.

In 1983 Hohmann founded a new company, Remei AG. This has been based in Rotkreuz since 1987 . In 1991 Hohmann started a small project to grow organic cotton, which he himself described as "an experiment or a hobby". In India and Tanzania , he began to convince farmers to grow organic cotton. The breakthrough came when the Swiss retailer Coop with its own brand Naturaline for textiles made from organic cotton became a buyer from 1995. However, the conversion to organic farming took time and the quality of the end products was not convincing at the beginning. In 2004 Remei AG decided to offer only organic cotton, even if this cut sales in half.

In 1997, Hohmann founded the BioRe Foundation , which promotes the organic cultivation of cotton and supports disadvantaged farmers. Since 2004 bioRe India Ltd , bioRe Tanzania Ltd. as well as the two foundations bioRe India and bioRe Tanzania serve the farmers.

23 people work in the Remei company in Switzerland and 130 in India and Tanzania (as of 2015). Remei AG has an annual turnover of around 20 million francs (as of 2020). The foundation now works with around 6,000 organic farmers (as of 2020). Patrick Hohmann is no longer operational. One of his sons is now co-managing director.

In the documentary Fair Traders by Nino Jacusso , Patrick Hohmann is one of the three people portrayed.

Hohmann is involved in the foundation board of the social works Pastor Sieber . He is also a member of the Economic Committee for Responsible Business, which supports the Corporate Responsibility Initiative .

Awards

In 2014 the Swiss prix.eco.swisscanto sustainability award went to Patrick Hohmann. Remei AG had already received the sustainability award for SMEs from Zürcher Kantonalbank in 2009 . And in 2006 Remei AG and Coop received the Swiss Award for Business Ethics and in 2002 the International Environment Prize for Sustainable Development Partnerships from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

literature

  • Nicole Müller: Patrick Hohmann, the organic cotton pioneer . Rüffer & Rub, Zurich, 2019. ISBN 978-3-906304-51-9

Press articles

  • Joseph Keve: The good idea from Rotkreuz , WochenZeitung, January 10, 2008
  • Romeo Renenass: Where organic cotton can help out of the debt trap , Tages-Anzeiger, January 21, 2005
  • Bernard Imhasly: India's cotton farmers between genetic engineering and organic farming , NZZ, February 4, 2003

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sigrid Faltin: Patrick Hohmann, Der Schweizer Spinner , in: Natur (magazine) , June 1996, p. 105
  2. ↑ Willi Bär: Patrick Hohmann - cosmopolitan bridge builder , interview in: Moneta, September 5, 1997
  3. ↑ a b “I want to work with people” - Anthroposophy Switzerland. In: anthroposophie.ch. November 7, 2018, accessed July 4, 2020 .
  4. ↑ About us. In: Remei. Retrieved on July 4, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ Organic with every fiber. In: Coop newspaper. February 17, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Tijana Nikolic: Thanks to a Red Cross company, the organic cotton will not run out. In: Zuger Zeitung. May 19, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Nicole Müller: Patrick Hohmann, the organic cotton pioneer . Rüffer & Rub, Zurich, 2019. p. 120
  8. ↑ bioRe Foundation. In: biore-stiftung.ch. Retrieved June 20, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Nicole Müller: Patrick Hohmann, the organic cotton pioneer . Rüffer & Rub, Zurich, 2019. p. 123
  10. ↑ Martin Vetterli: Fair for whom? , Observer, April 17, 2015
  11. ↑ Fair Traders the Movie. Retrieved July 4, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Economic Committee for Responsible Business: The Committee. Retrieved August 18, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Sustainability award to Zug pioneer. In: Zentralplus.ch. February 24, 2014, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  14. ↑ NZZ, September 1, 2009
  15. ^ Ester Nüssli: Small company throws high waves , Neue Zuger Zeitung, October 12, 2002
personal data
SURNAME Hohmann, Patrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hohmann, Patrick Hans (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss entrepreneur and pioneer of organic cotton
DATE OF BIRTH 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Alexandria