As the jihadi terrorists flew two hijacked planes into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, Carl Elsener was at home. Like everyone else, he watched the TV footage with a mixture of horror and shock. It was only a few days later he realized that the attacks were bad news for his business. Very bad news.
"We never thought about this. It just didn't occur to us," he says. "We always thought things might take a turn for the worse if crime went up. But not this."
Elsener is the great-grandson of Karl Elsener, the man who, in 1884, invented the Swiss army knife. At a time when Switzerland was one of Europe's poorest countries, Elsener wanted to create jobs. He decided to build a knife factory. Soon, he was turning out knives for Switzerland's famously non-combative army.
Over the past century, the Elsener family has transformed the Swiss army knife into an iconic global brand, beloved by American soldiers, small boys and stoical British campers struggling to open tins of baked beans. It became one of the 20th century's most successful products -- until Sept. 11. Almost overnight, the business collapsed.
"It was an absolute catastrophe for us," Elsener says. "Until then our knives had sold very well both in duty free shops and on board planes. Most airlines sold them, including British Airways."
"Then suddenly this distribution was closed. It was zero. The merchandise came back to us. This was really very hard," he said.
Under new airline regulations, passengers could no longer carry the Swiss army knife in their hand luggage. Those who didn't comply had their knives confiscated -- and they weren't returned at the other end.
Sales slump
The effects were sudden, and devastating. Sales of Swiss army knives dropped by 40 percent almost immediately. Finally, in April, Wenger SA -- the only other Swiss firm allowed to produce Swiss army knives -- went bust. Elsener's company, Victorinox, named after the mother of the founding Elsener, decided to rescue its rival, buying it for an undisclosed sum.
Despite Sept. 11 it would be an exaggeration to talk about the knife's demise, however. The Elseners are still manufacturing 34,000 Swiss army knives a day in the tiny village of Ibach. The setting, in the Swiss canton of Schwyz, is idyllic. There are shimmering mountains, a turquoise lake, and green pastures dotted with cherry trees. In a nearby alpine restaurant Swiss pensioners play cards overlooking a snow-covered glacier. The local tourist board has even devised a name for the area, 50km south of Zurich -- "Swiss knife valley."
Army still buying
At least the firm's original client -- the Swiss army -- is still ordering knives. On my way to Victorinox, I bump into two Swiss army recruits heading back to barracks after a weekend off. Do they have a Swiss army knife?
"I use mine every day," Roland Zehnder, 20, from Solothurn, explains proudly, producing the silver knife from his khaki trousers.
The standard-issue knife given to every Swiss soldier has the famous red Swiss flag badging and four functions: a bottle and can opener, a file, and a blade.
"It's good for opening cans," Roland says, before demonstrating how he uses the knife to adjust the sight on his Sturmgewehr 90 rifle.
As if things weren't bad enough for the Elseners in the post-Sept. 11 climate, they have also had to cope with another threat -- China.
Over the past 10 years, Chinese firms have churned out thousands of cheap copies of the Swiss army knife, seemingly indistinguishable from the real thing. (On closer inspection, the Chinese fakes are clearly inferior, with none of the satisfying "clicks" that distinguish the Swiss original. Victorinox boasts that its precision-made springs are indestructible.) Now the Swiss firm is fighting back. Last month it registered the deep red color of its Swiss army knives as a patent.
It has recently tipped off Chinese officials, who have staged raids for the first time on illegal factories.
Victorinox has also introduced a host of new products -- a kids' Swiss army knife; a blade-free air-travel version; and -- most successfully -- one with a USB port that allows you to link your knife up to your computer.
"We are not giving up," the firm's spokesman, Hans Schorno, said. "We are going to fight."
But globalization worries the Elseners, whose founding philosophy is one of old-fashioned paternalism. In the past 75 years the firm hasn't sacked anybody. Its 920 employees receive generous wages -- and are even given time off to perform Alexander technique stretching exercises in front of their steel-bashing machines. Though the factory is heavily automated, some products are still partly assembled by hand.
Elsener, 47, is a self-effacing man who drives a Peugeot 306 ("My parents taught me a certain modesty. We are a Catholic family. I get satisfaction from doing a job I enjoy. I don't need a Ferrari"). He points out that the Swiss army knife wouldn't be very, well, Swiss if he exported production to Guangdong, as other manufacturers have done.
He admits, however, that the quality of rival Chinese knives is improving.
"We have spent 100 years perfecting our product. And they just come along and rip it off. It isn't very nice," he complains meekly.
Legendary usefulness
It is perhaps appropriate that the Victorinox factory sits just underneath a mountain range known as Mythos. The firm is keen to promote the legendary virtues of the knife -- which has been used to save children from sinking cars, repair the space shuttle, and deliver foals. A German doctor last week sent the firm gruesome photos showing how he used a multi-tool knife to cut off the leg of a tsunami victim in Sri Lanka. He would have preferred a saw, he said, but there wasn't one available.
Elsener, whose father, grandfather, great-grandfather and five-year-old son are all called Carl, says he is convinced the Swiss army knife has a future.
In a world in which terrorism and globalization exist, people still need to chop things up, he notes.
"We will have challenges like 9/11," he says. "We can get through it. The Swiss army knife is still a very useful product for many, many people. If you look at human history people have been using knifes for a long time. It's gone on since the stone age. I'm confident it's not going to stop now."
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS