FRANCK & FISCHER products are toys, interior, and accessories for children. Every product is carefully manufactured with a focus on detail, and combine functionality and high play value with an appealing design.

FRANCK & FISCHER work primarily with textiles. Every single product is hand made. With the sewing and crochet techniques required to make a FRANCK & FISCHER product, we find the most highly skilled manufacturers in the Far East.
We choose to produce in agreement with local traditions for handcraft in order to achieve the best results. We have a close and personal relation to our suppliers, and visit them on a regular basis. This way we get a good knowledge of local way of life, and can fully vouch for the working conditions under which our products are manufactured.

Working conditions
Working conditions in the Far East are different from conditions normally found in Western European countries. Poor working conditions are not unusual in the Far East. We choose suppliers who can demonstrate good conditions for the employees, and where we have faith in that these conditions are not only to honour the visitor, but are actually every day for the employees. And we pay a good price to ensure that the supplier can make a business working with us, without having to put unreasonable pressure on the employees.
We receive beautiful work from our suppliers, and we make a great effort to ensure that our feedback is passed on to the women who sew and crochet our products, so that they know how highly valued their work for FRANCK & FISCHER is.

Toy manufacturer in Thailand
This company has existed for many years, and many of the employees have been at the factory from the beginning. The atmosphere between management and employees is warm and relaxed.
The company has been evaluated and approved according to ICTI standards (International Council of Toy Industries). ICTI work to promote international security standards for toys and responsible marketing towards children. But ICTI has also started another program, The CARE Process, to promote ethical production. This means good working conditions and focus on health and security for the employees. Our Thai supplier fully lives up to these standards. For more information see www.toy-icti.org.
Our supplier from Thailand makes toys and interior products for the nursery. All products are manufactured on sewing machines or by hand.

Our Northern Chinese manufacturer of crochet items
It is an old tradition to crochet in China, so this is where we have chosen to have our crochet models made. All products are hand crochet. Many of the women choose to work at home – while others choose to come to the factory where they sit in groups and work – and talk.
China is developing very fast. The big cities offer jobs and education, and this makes it more and more difficult to find young women who want stay in the smaller communities and learn the art of crochet. At the same time, the crochet production gives those who wish to stay in the local community the possibility of a flexible work, so that they can support themselves and be close to their families. 

Our supplier’s comments on the production:
”The quality is our key issue in my mind from the start to finish. As I told you that I love crochet and even if I am a man, because the crochet is graceful, ancient handcraft it is kind of outstanding Popular Culture.
Our crochet craftswomen can choose any workroom in our factory they think, because they need the quiet, bright, arid and cool place for doing quality crochet products, and they only work on daytime 7 hours - ex.1 hours for Lunch. It is not good both for eyes and crochet quality working on night. All the staff are elder, no less than 25 years old.
It takes 3 years to educate a skilled crochet woman from the selected staff and not everyone can touch this point.”

Our Southern Chinese supplier of bags
This company is owned by a women who grew up in Hong Kong. The historical ties with Britain explain why management principles in this company are very much inspired by European traditions.
Like in Northern China, it becomes increasingly difficult to recruit employees for traditional production like the textile industry. Increasing standard of living gives young people the possibility to get an education. But even though society changes rapidly, our supplier still has many skilled women employed.
The company is accredited after ISO 9001 standard, which illustrates their focus on a stable organisation and well documented processes. This is an important factor in securing high quality in production. Only women with good experience in sewing are employed at the factory. Working processes are specialised, in order for the most talented employees to make the most difficult products. Work is organised in teams, and every team leader is responsible for further education of her team. Normal working hours are 8 hours per day, 6 days per week.
Most employees come from other parts of China. To encourage employees to stay with the factory, they are offered good (better than average) housing and working conditions. They obtain bonus for high quality and productivity. Loyalty and team spirit is supported by different social events like sports activities, excursions etc.

Our Indian supplier of organic and FAIRTRADE products
To market products made from FAIRTRADE cotton we as a company must be able to document to our customers that the extra price they pay for the products will support also the first link in the chain of production – the cotton farmers – with an extra income.

In spring 2009 we visited India together with the FAIRTRADE organisation Max Havalaar, to see for ourselves the conditions for farmers growing cotton for our designs. The villages in the centre of India are poor. The extra bonus they get from selling cotton under FAIRTRADE conditions gives them the means to carry out improvements in their daily life that would not otherwise have been possible.

Projects are carried out according to a democratic decision in the different villages. Examples of projects already carried out or on the list of wishes are: building a new well, a drinking trough for the cows, buying life insurances, improving educational conditions for the children, having a new plough or building a barn to store the cotton, so that they are more flexible to decide when to sell the cotton at the best price.

The old traditional form of cotton farming in India is organic, but 20 years ago this way of production had almost disappeared. Today more and more farmers return to organic production. It can give the same yield as conventional production, but organic production requires more work in the fields, using the different natural pesticides like cow urine at exactly the right time during the growth of the cotton.

The manufacture of the organic cotton is in and around Delhi . The different parts of the production – weaving mills, sewing etc – supply for a central office that is in close cooperation with different NGOs, groups of farmers etc to ensure that the whole chain of production lives up to organic and FAIRTRADE principles. All parts of the production is certified regarding organic growing of the cotton, and all manufacturing facilities provide safe work environment for the men and women employed. (Control Union f.k.a. SKAL ( Netherlands ), Ecocert or FLA ).

Our supplier of wooden toys from Thailand

Wooden toys and interior products are new product lines from FRANCK & FISCHER. Our supplier of these products has a strong philosophy on environmental responsibility and quality of life, and this has clear implications for their production.

Basis in the manufacture of toys is the rubber tree. Wild growing trees can reach a height of 44 meters . In plantations they rarely become more than 24 meters before they are cut down. Production of rubber and rubber wood is know to be very environmentally friendly. The trees are first planted for their latex. At some point the trees stops producing latex, and they will then be cut down and all the wood put to use for wood or wood products like MDF. New small trees will replace the old ones, so there will be no reduction of forest area.

Our products are made solely from the rubber wood, either MDF or the raw wood in hooks in the coat racks.

All products are certified by both the ASTM F963-96A of the United States of America and EN - 71 of the European Union, which guarantee both quality and safety.

General responsibility at FRANCK & FISCHER
Just like we take responsibility in our production, we are conscious about the environment in our administration.
We plan our production so that everything is transported is by ship. Air freight is only used in case of absolute emergency. All cartons from our suppliers are reused when we ship orders to our customers. Extra cartons are recycled and bought second hand. Filling in boxes is excess packaging from our suppliers.
We avoid using PVC tape for packing. We save paper for print, and reuse paper when ever possible.

We try to act in a good and responsible manner, so that both we and our customers can have a clean conscience when buying a FRANCK & FISCHER product.