geobra Brandstätter

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geobra Brandstätter Stiftung & Co. KG

logo
legal form Foundation & Co. KG
founding 1876
Seat Zirndorf
management Steffen Höpfner (CEO)

Roger Balser, Robert Benker, René Feser, Wolfgang Höger

Number of employees 4,614 worldwide, 2,613 Germany (2019)
sales 742 million euros (2019)
Branch Toys, planters, garden furniture
Website company.playmobil.com , www.playmobil.de , www.lechuza.de

The geobra Brandstätter Stiftung & Co. KG , also known as the Brandstätter Group , is a German company known for its Playmobil system toy . The company is based in Zirndorf in Franconia .

Brandstätter headquarters (left) and Playmobil FunPark in Zirndorf

The Company

history

The locksmith Andreas Brandstätter started his own business in 1876 with six employees. His company produced fittings for boxes and locks. His son Geo rg Bra ndstätter (August 3, 1868 in Cadolzburg - January 11, 1935 in Nuremberg) took over the company in 1908 and coined the company name geobra. After this change it was renamed Metallwarenfabrik Georg Brandstätter . The company moved to Zirndorf, where it was registered as a general partnership in 1926 . Produced shop items , toys, phones and money boxes . At the beginning of the 1930s, the company name was supplemented by the geobra trademark .

Georg's grandson Horst Brandstätter joined the company in 1952 and became a partner two years later after he had reached the age of majority . The changeover of the product range to plastic goes back to him . There were hula hoop manufactures tires, steerable seat tractors and piggy banks. Due to the strong competition in the toy business, the product range was steadily expanded and water skis , plastic sports boats , oil tanks and record players were also manufactured. In 1964, HOB GmbH & Co. KG was founded to manufacture record players and intercom systems ; In 1981 Klaus Brandstätter joined the company and turned production towards software, especially for remote access. In 1969 new factory buildings were built in Dietenhofen , and in 1971 the first foreign production was established in Malta . At the beginning of the 1970s, furnishings such as ceiling panels and furniture were also considered as products, but were not pursued further with the onset of the oil crisis . The company struggled to get enough raw materials and fell into the red.

In this situation, the development of a smaller system toy based on figures developed by Hans Beck was pushed . In 1972 the figure was patented in Germany. In 1973 patents followed in the USA, France, Italy and the UK. Playmobil was presented for the first time in February 1974 and launched on the market in autumn of that year. At first the demand could hardly be met. To this day, Playmobil is geobra Brandstätter's most important product.

In 1990 the company moved to its current headquarters.

In 1995 the “Playmobil Children's Fund” foundation was founded by company owner Horst Brandstätter.

In 2000, the business area of ​​planters and accessories was opened up with the LECHUZA planting systems brand. The LECHUZA planting systems are made of plastic and are equipped with a sub-irrigation system.

On June 3, 2015, the Playmobil company owner Horst Brandstätter died . He left his two children Klaus and Conny and four grandchildren. He was divorced twice. After his death, the company became a dual foundation: a non-profit foundation and a corporate foundation in which the most important employees are represented. Hardly anything changed in the company's official business policy, but a management problem arose internally; Insiders reported in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of a power vacuum : "None of the three new board members can decide alone, one is watching."

In March 2016, Judith Weingart, one of the chairmen, left the company because of problems with her chairman partners. In November 2016, the company announced that with Steffen Höpfner, a previous member of the Board of Trustees, will take over the chairmanship of the Executive Board and will lead both the group and the foundation. According to research by Manager Magazin, however, the factual decision-making power lies with Ms. Marianne Albert. The long-time chief secretary not only heads the charitable foundation, but also heads the advisory board. And this “can not only recall the board of directors, but also bind decisions to its approval at any time, which Albert makes extensive use of. (...) Now hardly anyone doubts who is the mistress of the house. "

Locations and companies

Former and current product range

  • Casket fittings (1876–1926)
  • Shop articles (from 1926 to 1954 made of sheet metal, wood and metal, from 1954 to around the 70s made of plastic and metal)
  • Money boxes (from 1926 to 1954 made of sheet metal and metal, from 1954 to around the 70s made of plastic and metal)
  • Telephones (from 1926 to 1954 made of sheet metal and metal, from 1954 to around the 70s made of plastic and metal)
  • Metal toys (from 1926 to 1954)
  • Hula hoops (in 1958/59)
  • Plastic toys before geobra (from around 1958/59 to the 70s)
  • Sporting goods (from around 1958/59 to the 1970s)
  • Household items (from around 1958/59 to the 70s)
  • Playmobil (since 1974)
  • Planters, garden furniture (since 2000)

Sales development

business
year 		Sales (in € million)
Number of employees		 source
Brandstätter
Group 		Playmobil
worldwide 		Lechuza
2017 741 679 - 4,443
2016 - - - -
2015 616 558 - -
2014 595 535 46.4 4.166
2013 612 552 47.5 4,069
2012 591 531 46.9 3,701
2011 564 505 45.6 3,520
2010 560 507 33 3,250
2009 518 474 39 3,060
2008 496 452 22nd 3,000
2007 459 427 20th 2,861
2006 402 379 12 2,721
2005 377 361 2,591
2004 370 359 2,500
2003 331.4 324 2,428
2002 301 260 2,267
2001 292.9 268 2,318

Around 70 percent of sales are achieved abroad. There are Playmobil sales offices in many European countries and in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

In 2013, “Der Spiegel” presented the company geobra Brandstätter Stiftung & Co. KG as a prime example of the success of the German economy. Her sole owner refuses to “have his toy figures produced in Asia. Because he and his men prefer to conquer country after country with their own money, instead of going public, looking for a merger partner or whatever else wild investment bankers demanded at the turn of the millennium. A Lehman crash , a debt crisis and a European recession later, Brandstätter's entrepreneurs suddenly stand for the future. "

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Brandstätter Group Figures and Data , company.playmobil.com, accessed on January 31, 2018.
  2. ↑ Chaos in the toy store. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of November 27, 2015, accessed on December 8, 2016.
  3. ↑ bickering in Playmobilland. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of March 1, 2016, accessed on December 6, 2016.
  4. ↑ Playmobil has a new boss. In: Spiegel Online from December 1, 2016, accessed on May 16, 2017.
  5. ↑ Martin Mehringer: She doesn't just want to play. in: Manager Magazin , issue 12/2016, page 48 ff.
  6. ↑ http://company.playmobil.com/Company/es-ES/playmobilr-funstore
  7. ↑ Brandstätter Group Figures and Dates | Company. Retrieved on August 7, 2018 (German).
  8. ↑ a b Brandstätter Group Figures and Data , company.playmobil.com, accessed on January 31, 2018.
  9. ↑ geobra Brandstätter: Playmobil sales again over half a billion - record investments of 81.5 million planned , especially in Germany , k-online.de, accessed on February 25, 2018
  10. ↑ Playmobil on the triumphant advance in children's rooms ( Memento from January 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), tagesschau.de, accessed on February 25, 2018
  11. ↑ Playmobil again achieves record sales
  12. ↑ Playmobil facts 2007
  13. ↑ Brandstätter Group - the most important data ( MS Word ; 23 kB)
  14. ↑ IHK Nürnberg: High investments in Germany , accessed on February 25, 2018
  15. ^ IHK Nürnberg: Brandstätter Group: New jobs through capacity expansion , accessed on February 25, 2018
  16. ↑ IHK Nürnberg: Double-digit sales increase with Playmobil , accessed on February 25, 2018
  17. ↑ IHK Nürnberg: Record results again , accessed on February 25, 2018
  18. ^ Christian Rickens: Mittelstand. The possessed . The mirror . Issue 39/2013, September 21, 2013