#Yarn & Fiber

2025-01-30

Senior Managing Director Heinz Gunold has passed away

The Stockstadt-based company GUNOLD, GmbH mourns the loss of its senior managing director Heinz Gunold, who passed away on January 8, 2025, at the age of 96.

Heinz Gunold lived with passion for his company, his profession and his employees. In 1951, as a young man of 22, he took over responsibility for the family business after the all too early death of his father. He lived and worked true to his motto “Deus in minimus maximus” - “God is greatest in the smallest”. One of the decisive turning points for the GUNOLD company was his escape from East-German Plauen to West-German Stockstadt after WWII in the summer of 1949. Over the years, the arts and crafts drawing studio developed into a commercial production company for embroidery programs, i.e. punch cards for operating multi-head embroidery machines. Under his leadership, the company grew in the following years to become the world's largest manufacturer of digitized embroidery designs.

In 1969, Heinz Gunold laid the foundation for today's GUNOLD GmbH with the development of embroidery threads, embroidery backings and foils. From 1975 until 2021, the company maintained a close and exclusive cooperation with Beerli AG in Switzerland for the production of embroidery threads, which only ended due to its closure. Today, new production partners in Europe with many years of experience in thread dyeing are working alongside the family business. The quality department in Stockstadt has been continuously expanded and today ensures that the high-quality standard of the threads is always guaranteed

Since 2024, responsibility for the company has been in the hands of his grandchildren Aileen and Kevin Gunold. This means that the company is now in its fourth generation, following the many years of work and commitment of Heinz Gunold`s son Christoph Gunold, who managed the company from 1995 to 2024.

Company history is no different to cultural history: “What and who we are, what we want and do not want, what we can and cannot do - the key to this lies in the past.” These words of Heinz Gunold reflect the vision and foresight that he brought to the company. Even at an advanced old age, he remained active and was often seen at his company, where he left a lasting impression on his employees.

The Gunold company announced: „We will remember Heinz Gunold as an outstanding entrepreneur and person whose vision and values shaped the company and helped achieve international success. His legacy will live on in the values and culture of the company, which he shaped with dedication and foresight. We are losing a visionary entrepreneur and a valued person whose influence will reach far beyond the boundaries of GUNOLD.”

Gunold showcases embroidery product range and services at Texprocess

At Texprocess 2026, GUNOLD will present numerous hands-on examples related to embroidery in Hall 8, Booth E20. The focus is on creative embroidery designs as well as the extensive product range of threads, nonwovens, and accessories for embroidery and embellishment. “Trade visitors can once again look forward to many new and creative embroidery designs. Of course, we will also showcase the matching products required to bring these ideas to life,” announces Marketing Manager Stephan Gunold.

Delicate by day, glowing by night

Light and color—no other thread combines these two properties as fascinatingly as GUNOLD's GLOWY specialty thread. During the day, it appears in powdery, soft pastel shades, and at night it transforms into a contrasting bright green. Embroidery and decorative seams change their appearance as if by magic as soon as darkness falls.

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Since April 1, 2024, the Gunold GmbH has a new management team with the two siblings Aileen and Kevin Gunold. The family business from Stockstadt, celebrating its 100th anniversary in three years' time, will now be managed by the fourth generation. “I am delighted that our company will continue to be run by the family,” says father Christoph Gunold, who was the third generation to manage the company for almost 30 years until March 2024.

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