FALKE SOUTH AFRICA: German Engineered, South African Made – Built to Last
In 2018, Enterprise Africa found Falke South Africa in a strong place with the nice problem of struggling to meet demand for its products. Eight years later, the company has been through an interesting period, and a new executive team is looking to recapture momentum and potential that has slowed. CEO Neil Hablutzel and Senior Marketing Manager Sureine van der Merwe explain that quality and reliability continue to form the core of the company’s offering.
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Every pair of socks that leaves the Falke factory in Bellville, Cape Town, has passed through human hands more than once. Specialists check each seam, heel pocket and elasticated grip for anatomical fit, and any yarn that fails testing never reaches the knitting floor. It is a patient way to make something most people only notice when it fails, and it has been the Falke approach since German hosier Franz Falke-Rohen founded the company in 1895.
Falke South Africa has made socks and hosiery in Cape Town since 1974 and counts itself among the Southern Hemisphere’s largest and most innovative manufacturers in the category. The wider Falke group is now in its fourth generation under Paul Falke and Franz-Peter Falke. The range covers sport and fashion, from running, hiking and cycling to golf, racquet sports, gym training and team sport, with compression wear, arm protectors, underwear and hosiery alongside.
“We are a manufacturer of Falke branded and own-label socks for the local and international markets,” CEO Neil Hablutzel says of the South African operation. “We make for the German parent company, but our footprint is local in South Africa.”
“We are the only factory that has its own local brand. The market here is more price sensitive than the European market and we have lower cost products for fashion, sport, and hosiery. The average German product goes for around €25 but ours sells for €10,” explains Senior Marketing Manager Sureine van der Merwe. Holding that position through a period of heavy change fell to a new chief executive, and the group’s reputation gives him a strong platform.
Hablutzel has spent a career putting businesses on their feet. “I am a chartered accountant, and I started my career in textiles before moving into clothing and distribution and retail where I owned the franchise for the Polo brand in South Africa,” he says. Years of turnaround consulting followed, and then Falke called. “I got involved with Falke in 2024, reviewing the company’s fundamentals and the processes, and I began a restructuring journey before being appointed CEO in 2026,” he says. “Falke was not in distress, but it was underperforming and not reaching the potential that was obviously there with its brand strength and profile.”
TARGETED RANGES
Reclaiming lost ground starts on the shelf. “Growth in the current market is our priority as we have lost some share. We are building to get that back. We are completely redeveloping the ranges in South Africa and the first has already launched recently in the compression segment,” says van der Merwe.
“Compression helps in sport and medical sectors, and we have launched the first part of that which is a sports performance product. We are looking at a recovery product soon and we are then moving into medical grade compression soon after. This is something that we are very excited about as we have the facilities to test accordingly. Many brands would typically say that they have compression or gradual compression, but they don’t have the testing facilities to prove their claims,” says van der Merwe. The Cape Town operation boasts a fully equipped testing laboratory and certification to DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 for quality management.
The online range already splits running into trail, road and track, and hiking into day and multi-day trips, each with its own balance of cushioning, weight and protection. “We are also reshaping the sports socks market in South Africa completely by integrating categories into each sports division, taking into account that one product does not work for each type of runner or hiker or cyclist. We are expanding our range to ensure there is a product for every single athlete and that they are able to effectively look after their feet as that is the most important touchpoint in these sports,” says van der Merwe.
Importantly, by expanding the range – and proving claims through thorough testing – the company is emerging as a supplier into a new but quickly growing segment. Daily life and changing trends have blurred the line between training kit and office wear. Falke cites a finding that nearly 70% of people who wear athleisure use it for regular, non-athletic activities, which draws the fashion and sport ranges closer together. “Our products are engineered to suit the needs of our clients. Falke is a local brand but with a history of German engineering and that is always something that will endure,” says van der Merwe.
“We intend on expanding aggressively into Africa and Australasia. We supply another brand into the USA and international markets. We are always looking to expand, and the first step will be with our own brand on the African continent,” says Hablutzel. “It is now a matter of time, with proper product and marketing support, that we will be in a much stronger position,” he adds. Being a household name at home gives that export push a solid base.
QUALITY FIRST
Staff who have spent decades with the company form the backbone of the factory floor, passing skills to younger colleagues, and the modern investment into that knowledge shows in the finished product. “The executive team is now almost all new, and we have brought in significant expertise across marketing, sales, IT etc and we have addressed issues that were holding the brand back. We now have to continue attracting the requisite skills as the industry has lost some of its appeal over the decades,” says Hablutzel.
“One of the greatest things about us is that we are still family owned – that sets us apart quite significantly. Internally, the people who work here get looked after better than they would elsewhere. We have a lot happening internally and we are looking at upskilling a lot of our people,” adds van der Merwe.
“Our product quality is by far our most important differentiator – that is what we are known for first and foremost. Falke is known for having the best quality, and that is not just because products last a long time, it’s because we use the right technology in our ranges. We always strive to have the best yarns which we source from sustainable partners,” says van der Merwe. A top-quality pair can take weeks to produce, and an in-house dye house and twisting facility in Cape Town allows surplus yarn to be re-engineered and reused.
“We have strong relationships with yarn suppliers, and we work closely with dyes and chemicals companies. We have to engage with energy organisations and personnel, and then packing makes up the last of the core ingredients for what we do,” says Hablutzel. New yarns arrive in small quantities for testing before the company commits to larger production runs.
“The markets are very fragile with political and financial instabilities that are out there right now,” says van der Merwe. “Quality and perceived price versus value is becoming increasingly important. People are willing to spend a little extra but if the product will last them four or five seasons then that is vastly preferred.”
Recent industry research reports that the average garment is worn seven to 10 times before disposal and that less than 1% of textiles are recycled into new clothing, while the WWF Nedbank Green Trust urges South Africans to choose fewer, better-quality items made to last.
BUILT TO LAST
Textile hubs have taken heavy punishment this year. After significant unrest, three factories in KwaZulu-Natal, reported losing between 12 and 19% of their workforce, and the clothing workers’ union SACTWU estimates that 15% of the town’s 15,000-strong textile workforce left. Owners say they cannot raise wages because retailers pay little for garments. “In the last five years, we have saved more than 1,000 jobs as the industry has grown and changed and as imports have become more of a direct challenge to how clothing manufacturing works,” says Hablutzel, arguing that success is possible if the right processes and standards are put in place.
The Green Trust links the decline of local manufacturing under cheap imports to lost livelihoods, skills and economic resilience, in a water-scarce country where a single cotton T-shirt takes around 2,700 litres to produce. Brands of pedigree answer that pressure by offering something durable, locally made and worth repairing or passing on. “In South Africa, Falke was for some time the only premium sock brand. There were around 10 brands that opened since 2020, and more than half of them are already closed because they are chasing trends and unable to deliver for the market, both trade and consumer. They almost position themselves in the fast fashion segment, and Falke is very against that,” says van der Merwe.
“We try to ensure the products we make last long enough or can be handed down. Falke is known for being a quality product, slightly more expensive, but much more enduring – this is increasingly important,” says van der Merwe, with some customers reporting Stride running socks or Ranger hiking socks as able to last 10 years or more.
“We are a household brand, and that gives us an advantage in South Africa. How brands structure themselves to stay true to their core but still ensure that they are on trend for the market is a very important topic for us. The market is changing, and we are well set to overcome hurdles that will inevitably pop up,” says van der Merwe.
Protecting jobs, driving quality, securing sustainability, and manufacturing products that are genuinely prized by customers is the offering from Falke, and the case for that kind of maker has rarely looked stronger.