For brands, manufacturers and compliance and sustainability professionals, this history also illustrates how testing expertise has evolved as materials, supply chains and market requirements have changed.

From silk conditioning to textile testing

TESTEX began with a practical challenge. In the nineteenth-century silk trade, the weight of raw silk varied depending on its moisture content, making reliable commercial comparisons difficult.

The Zurich Silk Conditioning Institute was founded in 1846 to provide an independent basis for determining the commercial weight of silk. By conditioning the material and establishing a comparable weight, the institute helped make transactions more transparent and measurable.

TESTEX began expanding beyond silk relatively early. In 1890, the institute added a chemistry laboratory. As Zurich's silk industry later declined, its activities increasingly extended to other fibres, yarns and textile products.

In 1970, the Zurich Silk Conditioning Institute became TESTEX AG, reflecting a transformation that had already been underway for decades: silk was no longer the sole focus, while textile testing had become central to the organisation's work.

From textile quality to product safety

By the beginning of the 1990s, environmental and health-related questions were becoming increasingly important in the textile sector. In 1993, TESTEX joined OEKO-TEX® and began testing textiles according to human-ecological requirements.

This marked another stage in the company's development. Testing increasingly extended beyond material properties and quality to the assessment of textiles against defined product safety criteria.

As textile production and sourcing became more international, consistent requirements also gained importance. Today, the TESTEX Group is an accredited certification body of OEKO-TEX® and serves as the official OEKO-TEX® representative in multiple countries and regions.

Swiss roots, international presence

The international expansion of TESTEX followed the changing geography of textile production. In 1995, the company opened its first branch outside Switzerland in Hong Kong, bringing its services closer to increasingly global supply chains.

In 2013, TESTEX AG and Austrian company OETI formed the TESTEX Group. Today, the group employs more than 400 people at over 45 locations worldwide.

The combination of Swiss roots and international presence reflects the changing role of testing and certification: globally consistent requirements need to be applied across different markets and production regions while maintaining independence and comparability.

180 years of continuous transformation

The history of TESTEX spans the transformation from silk conditioning to textile testing, from a local Zurich institution to an international organisation, and from traditional quality assessment to a broader range of testing and certification activities for textiles and leather.

The textile and leather industries continue to face new materials, regulatory requirements and growing expectations around product safety, quality and sustainability. While today's challenges differ fundamentally from those of 1846, the underlying task remains similar: making complex properties and requirements measurable and comparable.

TESTEX's 180th anniversary therefore marks both continuity and change – continuity in the commitment to dependable results and change in the methods, expertise and international structures required to provide them.