Ernst A. Bettag

Ernst Albert Bettag (born April 18, 1929 in Fürth ; † April 21, 2003 there ) was a German toy manufacturer. He was the inventor of the bobby car .

Life

Bobby car

Bettag received his electronics engineering diploma from the Technical University of Munich in 1954 . After that he was briefly in the USA , came back to Franconia with full order books and took over the ailing metal goods factory Jean Hoefler of his father-in-law Leonhard Hoefler, which produced tin toys . The tin car series "Racing-Car" brought Bettag the first million in sales, both in terms of the number of units and sales. He sold the old sheet metal presses and converted production to plastics production in 1956. Since 1962 the company name "BIG" has also been used.

In 1968 the first Bettag product was introduced with the buffalo, a boat that has sold 350,000 times. Between 1969 and 1972 Bettag built the new factory near Fürth-Stadeln for over 20 million marks .

It came onto the market in 1972 with the Bobby Car . Initially the clientele came almost exclusively from the USA. He later achieved a sales share of 28 to 30 percent.

The first Play-BIG figures appeared in 1975, which were sold especially in Europe. In the UK , the figures were sold by Playcraft under the name Busy Bodies . After a legal dispute, however, they were ousted from the market by Playmobil .

After the Big Spielwarenfabrik GmbH & Co KG factory in Fürth burned down in 1998, he revived production in the subsidiary Hoefler near Burghaslach and built one of the most modern toy factories in the world there from January 2001 to September 2002.

After his death, his company was without a clear management structure for over a year before it was sold to the Simba-Dickie-Group .

Bettag was married and had three sons with his wife Charlotte.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Abendzeitung München: The widow of the BIG founder died in the USA . February 4, 2009 ( abendzeitung-muenchen.de [accessed June 30, 2017]).