UVEX SAFETY GROUP GmbH & Co KG has its headquarters in Fürth, northern Bavaria, where the majority of its employees are based. The company was founded in 1926 by Philipp M. Winter, who manufactured protective eyewear in his "Optische-Industrie-Anstalt". With 2900 employees and 49 subsidiaries in 22 countries, the uvex group achieved sales of 480 million euros in fiscal year 2019/20.

The uvex group is a medium-sized family business. The company under the sole proprietorship of Philipp M. Winter is renamed “Winter-Gesellschaft für Optik und Augenschutz” with the family becoming legal shareholders. Rainer Winter is appointed as joint Managing Director together with Philipp M. Winter.

The first safety eyewear created by Philipp M. Winter was designed for labourers. Philipp M. Winter also equipped a number of athletes with safety eyewear at the 1936 Summer Olympics. After successfully mastering the challenges of the early years, the premises soon became too small and the company moved to Salzstrasse in Fürth, which remained the headquarters for many years.

In 1964, Rainer Winter coined the “uvex” brand name, based on an abbreviation of the quality seal for lenses – Ultra Violet EXluded. From this moment on, all sports and leisure products were and still are sold under the uvex brand. They protected the eyes from metal fragments and sparks, when drilling, machining or welding, for example. In 2014, the range of UVEX products includes safety eyewear, safety helmets, hearing protection, breathing protection, safety gloves,safety footwear and workwear.

Development and production are concentrated in Germany and Europe. From the initial idea through research and development to production using state-of-the-art production processes, the entire value chain is in the hands of uvex. In this way, we protect our know-how sustainably and realize our ambitious vision: We want to be the best in our industry! All uvex products are characterized by technological innovation, high wearing comfort and unmistakable design. This applies - for example - to ski helmets, cycling goggles, hearing and respiratory protection, safety shoes and sunglasses from Filtral.

The constant transfer of know-how between top-class sport and occupational safety inspires our inventive talent and innovative ability. At uvex, we want to realise our vision of protecting people in a sustainable way. As a manufacturer with a high in-house production rate, we can influence most aspects of the value creation chain. We use this influence to reach our sustainability goals in terms of ecology, economy, working conditions and human rights, employees and society, and product.

Since the fiscal year 2017/2018, the uvex group publishes its sustainability report in an online version following the guidelines of the GRI content index. The uvex group adhere to GRI 102-55 For the Materiality Disclosures Service, GRI Services reviewed that the GRI content index is clearly presented and the references for Disclosures 102-40 to 102-49 align with appropriate sections in the body of the report.

From this point on, all sports and leisure products (ski, cycling and riding helmets, ski, cycling, equestrian and sports eyewear) made by UVEX SPORTS GmbH & Co. KG, Fürth, and all the products in the industrial sector (protective eyewear, helmets, hearing and hand protection, safety footwear and workwear) made by UVEX SAFETY GROUP GmbH & Co. KG., Fürth, were brought together under one brand: uvex.

In order to create a presence in the US market, a subsidiary company, UVEX WINTER OPTICAL, Inc., was founded in 1980 in Smithfield, Rhode Island. This subsidiary also produced protective eyewear in its own factory. In 1993, the uvex safety division was gradually sold to the French Bacou Group, including trademark rights in the USA. The sports division, however, was retained in full by the uvex group.

As a result, in the Western Hemisphere (North, Central and South America) the uvex brand name related to the safety division is now only used by the Sperian group (part of Honeywell International). uvex sports products however are distributed by the uvex group. In the Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa) the trademark rights for both divisions are still held by the uvex group (Germany).

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