<Tr> <Th> Number of employees </Th> <Td> 1038 (Annual average for 2016, of which approx. 270 in Steckborn) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.bernina.com </Td> </Tr> <P> Bernina International AG is a privately owned international manufacturer of sewing and embroidery systems . The company was founded in 1893 in Steckborn, Switzerland, by a Swiss inventor Fritz Gegauf . The company develops, manufactures, and sells goods and services for the textile market, primarily household sewing - related products in the fields of embroidery, quilting, home textiles, garment sewing, and crafting . The origins of the company lie in the invention of the hemstitch sewing machine, invented in 1893 by a Swiss inventor and entrepreneur Karl Friedrich Gegauf . Currently, the company's products include sewing machines, embroidery machines, serger / overlocker machines, and computer software for embroidery design . </P> <P> The present - day Bernina International AG was founded by Karl Friedrich Gegauf in 1893, when he decided to pursue an apprenticeship as a mechanic instead of studying medicine . After completing his apprenticeship, he worked in the Baum embroidery machine factory in Rorschach . In 1890, Karl Friedrich Gegauf set up his own business in Steckborn, Switzerland, opening an embroidery and mechanical workshop for the manufacture of his own invention, a monogram embroidery machine . Together with his brother Georg, a salesman, Karl Friedrich ran the Gebrüder Gegauf (Bros. Gegauf) company . Through his involvement in the textile industry, he noticed how laborious it was to produce hemstitching, which until then could only be done manually . Consequently, in 1893, Karl Friedrich Gegauf invented the world's first hemstitch sewing machine, capable of sewing 100 stitches per minute . In 1895, the Bros. Gegauf workshop was completely destroyed by fire, except for the prototype of the hemstitch sewing machine, which was the only thing that could be rescued . Karl Friedrich built a new workshop in an old barn, where the focus was no longer on embroidery, but on the construction of the hemstitch sewing machine . About 70 people were employed in the serial production of the hemstitch sewing machine . The mechanical production of hemstitching, whether as embellishment for handkerchiefs, tablecloths, or bedspreads, was commonly referred to as "gegaufing", because the name Gegauf became famous in the industry . </P>

Who was the founding father of the bernina sewing machine