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The world's most expensive vacuum cleaner? According to the Guinness Book of World Records it is the Hyla GST Swarowski edition with a retail price of no less than 21.900 US dollars, or over 18.500 euros. The price one would pay for a smaller car. The vacuum cleaner is covered by 32.000 little Swarowski crystals. Yet there's more to the cleaner than just aesthetics. Hyla is the world's leading producer of vacuum cleaners that use a water trap instead of standard bags and filters. This approach thoroughly removes airborne allergens from the air – something that other vacuum cleaning technologies cannot achieve.

This technology is getting increasingly popular as a growing number of people suffer from allergies. In almost four decades Hyla has thorougly perfected their water trap technology. The first Hyla prototype was developed back in 1991 by two entrepreneurial Slovenian engineers, Doro Erjavec and Janez Pogačar. Since then Hyla has enjoyed fast and stable growth, and has become one of Slovenia's hidden champions: its global market share exceeds over 30 percent within the niche of water trap vacuum cleaners. Its machines are not only used in households – leading international hotel chains like Marriott, Radisson Blue and Intercontinental are frequent customers of Hyla. While the Company's main markets are Germany, USA and France, their cleaners are becoming increasingly popular in Asia: China is expected to be Hyla's next growing market in upcoming years.

The company has prepared well for the expansion: in the last three years it has invested five million euros into the expansion of production facilities in Ljubljana and into the development of its latest product: The Hyla EST. It uses a commutator motor developed by another hidden champion, Domel – a leading producer of vacuum cleaner motors. Hyla's revenues reached 17 million euros last year. The company earned 1.9 million euros in net profits.