Kahla / Thuringia porcelain

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Kahla / Thuringia Porcelain GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1844
Seat Kahla , Germany
management Holger Raithel
Number of employees 300 (2019)
sales 22.5 (2016)
Branch porcelain
Website www.kahlaporzellan.com

Kahla at the Internorga fair, Hamburg 2014

The Kahla / Thüringen Porzellan GmbH is a German manufacturer of household and hotel porcelain based in Kahla .

history

The Kahla porcelain factory was founded by Christian Eckardt in 1844. The production of Kahlaer Porzellan began with 20 employees on August 27, 1844. In 1856 August Koch took over the company, which was converted into a stock corporation in 1888 . The company quickly developed into the largest porcelain factory in Thuringia and in 1914 was one of the largest porcelain manufacturers in Germany. From 1884 at the latest, the company used the nearby Walpersberg for underground sand mining . From 1924 were Kahla Porcelain Werke AG , the porcelain factories Arzberg , Schoenwald , Margaret hut and Hermsdorf insulators attached. Despite the economic crisis, Kahla porcelain was able to assert itself, above all thanks to its famous cobalt blue and its well-known series tableware with straw flower and onion pattern decor, which is used in many households.

After the Second World War , the Kahla porcelain factory initially operated as a Soviet joint-stock company , and on May 1, 1952 as a state-owned company . In 1961 the state administration built a new porcelain factory at the current location. The modern tunnel kiln technology was put into operation and the factories, which were scattered in the city of Kahla until the end of the 1960s, closed their workrooms. So there was only one location left.

The Kahla AG porcelain factory was re-established in 1949 at the Schönwald / Upper Franconia site. The main shareholders with 25% each were Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank. In 1972 this was taken over by Hutschenreuther AG and now operates under the name BHS Tabletop AG.

At that time, 50 percent of the production of the VEB that remained in Kahla was exported to over 30 Eastern and Western European countries. As VEB Feinkeramik, Kahla became the center of the porcelain industry in the GDR . Until 1979, 17 porcelain factories with 18,000 employees belonged to this combine , which from that year was called VEB Vereinigte Porzellanwerke Kahla. In addition, the VEB Kombinat Feinkeramik Kahla, based in Kahla, was founded as the legal successor to the Association of Publicly Owned Ceramics Erfurt. After the fall of the Wall, the Treuhand privatized the company in 1991, which however had to file for bankruptcy two years later in 1993.

In 1994 Günther Raithel, former Rosenthal board member, founded Kahla / Thüringen Porzellan GmbH as the majority shareholder . The Thuringian industrial participation company owned 49% of the shares.

The production facilities were modernized and the products were divided into two lines: Kahla Elegance and Kahla Modern. The porcelain shape "Aronda", developed by the designer Barbara Schmidt , was successfully presented at the Ambiente trade fair in Frankfurt / Main in 1994. In the spring of 1995, the Kahla hotel porcelain division was created as a second mainstay. From system to top gastronomy, the company now covered all needs. This development was accompanied by the complex introduction of our own quality management system , which was certified in 1996 according to the European standard DIN ISO 9001. In 2000 the Raithel family took over the remaining shares from the state of Thuringia. Since then, Kahla / Thüringen Porzellan GmbH has been a purely family company.

When it was founded in 1994, extensive investments were made in modern manufacturing technologies, in building up the brand and in a competitive sales system. The company now produces more than 2000 different products, 45,000 parts are manufactured at the Kahla site every day. Since then, Kahla has received more than 100 international design prizes for innovative product design, intelligent and ecological concepts. In 2005, the touch! Porcelain was patented. with a velvety surface coating. In 2006 a cup die-casting plant was put into operation in Kahla, which today produces cups for various coffee roasters. In 2009, Kahla presented its “Pro Öko” sustainability strategy with the introduction of the new TAO porcelain shape. After the installation of a photovoltaic system on the roofs of the production halls, a million investment was made in 2011 in a resource-efficient furnace and handling system to secure the location of porcelain production Made in Germany . The new kiln plant with a length of 56 meters and individual firing temperatures depending on the porcelain product and the distance in the kiln around 900 to 1400 degrees Celsius, based on natural gas, provides approx. 25% more product capacity and that with 40% reduced CO 2 emissions , each based on the two previous ovens. Five years before the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 , the goal of considerable CO 2 reduction was implemented in 2011. In 2012, Kahla received certification as an environmentally friendly company according to the ISO 14001 standard . In 2014 Kahla became a member of the Thuringia Sustainability Agreement (NAT), a network for sustainable business, and celebrated 170 years of "Made in Germany". Since 2018 Kahla has been offering "intelligent porcelain" with RFID technology to a. to automate and simplify logistical processes.

In March 2020, Kahla filed for bankruptcy.

gallery

  • 150 years of porcelain book

  • Stand of VEB Porzellanwerk Kahla at the Leipzig autumn fair 1953

  • Owner family Raithel

  • Porcelain series "TOUCH!"

  • "UPDATE" porcelain series

literature

  • 150 years of Porzellan Kahla: the history of a company . Self-published by Kahla Thüringen Porzellan GmbH, Kahla 1994
  • Richard Denner: The history of the porcelain industry in Kahla . J. Beck, Kahla 1930
  • Helmut Scherf, Jürgen Karpinski: Thuringian porcelain . Book and art publisher, Leipzig 1980

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kahlaporzellan.com: family business
  2. ↑ otz.de: Kahla porcelain is on course for growth
  3. ↑ Elisabeth Dostert: Long- running: The Raithel family joined Kahla in the mid-1990s and have been using porcelain from Germany ever since . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of September 21, 2015, p. 20.
  4. ↑ WinGas report on Kahla production growth , accessed January 25, 2020
  5. ^ Sophie Burfeind: Pile of broken glass: Germany was the porcelain stronghold in Europe, everything broke up after the fall of the Wall. A few companies are now successful again In: Süddeutsche Zeitung from July 1, 2017, p. 32.
  6. ↑ WinGas on innovative services at Kahla Porzellan , accessed January 25, 2020
  7. ↑ Kahla Porzellan files for bankruptcy