BIG toy factory
| BIG-SPIELWARENFABRIK GmbH & Co. KG | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1938 |
| Seat | Fuerth , Germany |
| management | Michael Sieber, CEO |
| Branch | Toy maker |
| Website | big.de |
| Status: November 12, 2016 | |
The BIG TOYS FACTORY GmbH & Co. KG is a German toy manufacturer based in Fürth . The family company, founded in 1938, initially produced tin toys , later plastic toys such as the Bobby Car and the Play Big figures . The BIG toy factory has been part of the Simba Dickie Group since 2004 .
history
On October 20, 1923 the three brothers Johann, Georg and Leonhard (Jean) Höfler founded the company Jean Höfler & Co.oHG for the production of metal goods in Fürth. Georg only participated in the company as a silent partner. The brothers later went different ways. While Johann produced tin toys and everyday objects such as buttons made of tin, Leonhard was engaged in the production of high-quality metal toys and Georg in the production of tools .
The Johann Höfler company, founded by Johann Höfler in 1938 , manufactured cheap sheet metal and metal toys. These included u. a. Cars, racing cars, planes, figurines, frogs, screamers, dollhouses and trains. A three-leaf clover (certainly based on the Fürth city arms ) with the letters "J" and "H" was used as a trademark .
The order situation became more and more difficult after the Second World War , partly due to the great competition. In 1953, the Johann Höfler company suddenly had to file for bankruptcy. Obviously, the new building on Erlanger Strasse had taken over. Leonhard Höfler, owner of the Jean Höfler company, was ready to take over the company of his brothers Johann and Georg and to settle the creditors with a payment of 25 percent of the total debt. As a result, the two companies Jean Höfler and Johann Höfler were merged again, now under the management of Leonhard Höfler. Johann Höfler, after whom both companies are named, had to leave his company.
Despite the merger of the two Höfler companies in 1953, the Jean Höfler company remained independent with both the company headquarters and the product line. In 1963, Leonhard Höfler set up another production plant in rural Burghaslach . a. because there were hardly any workers to be found in Fürth due to full employment . For many years the company's product range included cheap plastic items such as figures, cars, dolls furniture, etc. a. In the fifties, simple, single-colored soft plastic figures were first made by cowboys and Indians for the Heinerle lucky bags . The range was then Western landscapes with painted figures, buildings and landscapes from plastic - thermoforming sheets expanded. In the 1960s, simple plastic cars and accessories such as gas stations and parking garages were added.
From 1970 onwards, a large number of other different plastic toys were manufactured and sold under the JEAN brand with a new logo. Most famous and still available today are the Arthurs Castle and several figure sets of the Arthurs Knights. Since 2000, JEAN has only appeared as a separate product line in the BIG range.
Until 1999 it had its company headquarters at Hardstrasse 70. From 1997, the factory in Burghaslach became Jean Höfler's main production facility. The company Jean Höfler GmbH & Co. KG has been registered at Leonhard-Höfler Str. 5 in Burghaslach since 2004. In the same year, the entire production was also stopped.
Leonhard Höfler's son-in-law, Ernst A. Bettag , took over management of the company from his father-in-law at the age of 25 in 1954 and had great success with his first products from the “Racing Car” tin car series.
A radical change in tin toy production began in 1956. Höfler was one of the first tin toy manufacturers to sell their tools and convert all production to plastic. In the beginning there were small plastic figures such as Indians, cowboys and plastic cars, which are very popular with collectors today.
In 1959 the logo was replaced by the globe. In 1962 the company was renamed "BIG-SPIELWARENFABRIK GmbH & Co. KG". In 1966 the company logo was created with the buffalo, which is a symbol of robustness, resilience and longevity.
At the end of the 1970s, the production of soft plastic figures on a scale of 1:30 for surprise bags began . In addition to wild west figures, knights, soldiers of the Second World War and the early 19th century, animal figures, vehicles, buildings and other accessories were soon offered. The distribution soon took place no longer only via the surprise bags, but directly via the retail trade. Large mail-order and department stores also sold the series under their own brand, such as B. play good at Quelle , so that the figures were mostly made without a brand name and only with the base inscription W. Germany .
Variants made as promotional gifts for shoe retailers were seldom marked with Nigrin , Collonil or elephant shoes . The first BIG Bobby Car was presented at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1972 . The red car made of weather-resistant, bright red thermoplastic weighed 1.5 kilograms and is the best-selling children's vehicle with over 16 million units. In 1975 the production of Play-BIG figures began, which competed with Playmobil for several years.
After a major fire in 1998, one of the most modern toy factories was built in Burghaslach two years later. After the death of Ernst A. Bettag in April 2003, the company was sold to the Simba-Dickie-Group in 2004 .
Products
Today the company manufactures all kinds of plastic vehicles and is mainly known for the production of the Bobby Cars .
Today, production takes place in the BIG plant in Burghaslach on a 320,000 square meter site. The plastic toys are produced in three shifts using the blow molding and injection molding process . More than a million BIG products leave the premises every year.
Web links
- www.historytoy.com : Website with database and brief information on company history and company logo