Even before the reunification of Germany, many people in the DDR had an instinct for business and entrepreneurial flair to make it happen.  One print company born in that era has grown to lead the field in printing on especially challenging substrates.  Beiersdorf-based Texsib has built a unique reputation for printing and presenting materials that many would consider too difficult, such as shoes and carpets.

Texsib is a family business employing around twenty people.  The company’s founder Holger Bradatsch admits to being something of a rebel.  “We like to be a little different, to go against the grain.  We enjoy having to work out how to print something that has never been done before.”

The company’s informal origins lie in the GDR when western pop music magazines were a firm favourite with young people across all of Germany.  Holger Bradatsch, was mixing colours at a textile print works that produced tables cloths and other household fabrics.  Then colour music posters were hugely popular.  In the East most were monochrome, in short supply and beyond the means of most young music fans.

Using his print connections, Bradatsch began producing them for the local market with great success.  As a textile printer, with access to surplus ink samples the natural next step was to print designs on T-shirts, which he and his wife sold privately in local markets.

As business became successful, Bradatsch secured a business licence and operated on a more formal footing.  It allowed him to invest in equipment for small-scale reproduction and began producing foils for vehicles.  The business began in earnest, trading as Texsib, shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, Germany reunified and the Deutschmark became the sole currency. 

The name Texsib is perhaps misleading.  The final three letters stand for Siebdruck im Beiersdorf (“screen printing in Beiersdorf”) rather than an abbreviation for Siebdruck (“screen printing”) itself. Bradatsch laughs it off:  “It causes problems sometimes with emails and so forth when people mistake the name.  But it’s our name.  We’ve grown into it and don’t plan to change anything.”

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