Kettler (company)

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Kettler Freizeit GmbH

logo
legal form Company with limited liability
founding 1949
resolution 2019
Reason for dissolution insolvency
Seat Ense -Parsit, Germany
management Olaf Bierhoff
Number of employees 500
Branch Sporting goods , garden furniture , toys
Website www.kettler.de
Status: 2019

The companies of the Kettler Group have developed, produced and sold sporting goods, garden furniture as well as play and children's products. Founded by Heinz Kettler in 1949 as a family company, it was later split up into several subsidiaries under the umbrella of a holding company. At the beginning of the 2000s, the group ran into increasing difficulties, which in 2015 and 2018 led to bankruptcy proceedings and ultimately to plant closings.

The bicycle division was taken over in 2015 by the specialist trade association ZEG and transferred to the newly founded Kettler Alu-Rad GmbH , based in Cologne , which is no longer associated with the original Kettler group of companies .

Company building

Administration building in Ense-Parsit
Kettler factory in Ense-Parsit

The company had its headquarters in Ense-Parsit in North Rhine-Westphalia . The head office was located there. In the neighboring town of Werl , Kettler had a total of four plants. The "Mersch" plant was the largest within the group of companies and also housed a large central warehouse and the production facility for the plastics division, which also belonged to the company. The Werl- Sönnern I and II plants on Hammer Strasse in Werl produced a. a. Table tennis tables, sports equipment, aluminum garden furniture as well as play equipment and toy vehicles.

The company had offices in the USA, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, England and France.

Kettler had three shops for factory outlets, in which products of second choice and discontinued goods were sold: in Bokeloh , Werl and Kamen .

history

The company was founded in 1949 by Heinz Kettler in Parsit (today part of Ense in the Sauerland ).

A Kettler Kettcar from the front (2015).

In 1962, the company launched the Kettcar pedal car as a children's toy , which became a worldwide success; about 15 million copies were sold. In 1977 the Kettler Alu-Rad 2600 came , a bicycle with an aluminum frame and a total weight of 13 kg. Kettler was also long successful as a manufacturer of garden furniture.

Heinz Kettler wanted to build his son of the same name as his successor, but he died in a car accident in 1981. Heinz Kettler died in 2005 at the age of 77. The company was then run by his daughter, the biologist Karin Kettler, as the sole shareholder. At this point the company was already in trouble. On June 3, 2015, the company finally filed an application with the Arnsberg District Court to open insolvency proceedings in self-administration in order to prevent an uncontrolled takeover by a financial investor.

In the course of the ongoing insolvency proceedings, the Kettler bicycle division was transferred to the ZEG Zweirad -kauf -Genossenschaft eG in December 2015 and has not been part of the remaining Kettler group since then. For this purpose, the ZEG founded the KETTLER Alu-Rad GmbH and continues to manage the bicycle factory in Hanweiler, Saarland, with the 80 employees at the time.

On March 31, 2016, the insolvency proceedings against Heinz Kettler GmbH & Co. KG were lifted. On November 1, 2016, the business operations of Heinz Kettler GmbH & Co. KG were transferred to Kettler GmbH with state-guaranteed financing . The Heinz Kettler GmbH & Co. KG wound up only the insolvency plan.

In December 2016, the Bundeskartellamt imposed fines of 4.43 million euros on five German furniture manufacturers, including Heinz Kettler GmbH, for illegal price enforcement methods . Some of the furniture manufacturers have had their fines reduced because they have had financial problems and were in a reorganization or restructuring process.

After the end of the bankruptcy proceedings, Karin Kettler withdrew from the operative business. She died on March 3, 2017, at the age of 57, a week after a serious car accident.

In July 2018, the company filed for bankruptcy again. On October 1, 2018, the Arnsberg District Court opened insolvency proceedings in self-administration and appointed attorney Horst Piepenburg as administrator .

In December 2018, the financial investor Lafayette Mittelstand Capital acquired the company. At the end of July 2019, Kettler Freizeit GmbH and Kettler Plastics GmbH filed for insolvency in self-administration.

On October 11, 2019, the creditors' committee decided the final end for the companies Kettler Freizeit GmbH and Kettler Plastics GmbH and the employees were informed about this on October 14, 2019. Production stopped at the end of January 2020. Since then, some areas have been continued by KETTLER Holding GmbH. The garden furniture is sold by Kettler Home & Garden GmbH. Trisport bought the sports areas from Kettler.

Products

Kettler Alu-Rad at the train station Ybbs an der Donau, Austria (2017)

The Kettler Alu-Wheel 2600 was probably the world's first welded large-scale aluminum bicycle in 1977: "The direct welding of aluminum tubes in large-scale production only dared [...] Heinz Kettler [...] with the 'Type 2600'." Aluminum frame in production since the 1890s.) The Alu-Rad 2600 model developed into one of the most successful models in its class in Germany ; Kettler re-launched the model in 2009 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the aluminum bike .

Another area was the manufacture of children's vehicles such as scooters , slide vehicles , running and tricycles , especially the company's best-known product, the Kettcar .

In the field of sporting goods, the company was particularly known for the manufacture of table tennis tables and corresponding accessories such as table tennis bats and balls . Various exercise bike products were also produced.

Web links

Commons : Kettler  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kettler. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Kettler. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b About KETTLER. Retrieved March 12, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Kettler closes factory outlet for the time being in Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung , January 10, 2019
  5. ↑ a b c K. Terpitz, C. Kapalschinski: How Kettler got off track. Bankruptcy for fear of takeover. In: Handelsblatt No. 105 of 5./6./7. June 2015, p. 23.
  6. ↑ Thomas Steinmann: How a medium-sized company wants to reinvent itself after bankruptcy. In: Capital.de. May 4, 2019, accessed May 5, 2019 .
  7. ↑ The German Commerzbank had previously assigned its loan claims to the American investor Carlyle . Kettler on the brink. In: Welt am Sonntag , June 7, 2015 ( welt.de )
  8. ↑ Kettcar manufacturer Kettler reports bankruptcy to n-tv.de, June 3, 2015.
  9. ↑ Kettler and Kettcar: Bicycle company files for bankruptcy. In: Der Spiegel Online, June 3, 2015.
  10. ↑ Website of KETTLER Alu-Rad GmbH ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 8, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.kettler-alu-rad.de
  11. ↑ ZEG press releases. In: ZEG. Retrieved on February 12, 2016 (German).
  12. ↑ After a “turbulent year”, Kettler sees himself on the right path . In: Soester Anzeiger . December 17, 2016 ( soester-anzeiger.de [accessed December 20, 2016]).
  13. ↑ Case report of the Federal Cartel Office of January 11, 2017 - fines for vertical price fixing in the sale of furniture. (PDF) Bundeskartellamt , January 11, 2017, accessed on January 15, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Company heir dies after a car accident
  15. ↑ t-online.de: Kettcar manufacturer Kettler again files for bankruptcy , accessed on October 2, 2018.
  16. ↑ Iserlohner Kreisanzeiger and newspaper of October 2, 2018
  17. ↑ Financial investor wants to continue traditional business. www.spiegel.de, December 9, 2018.
  18. ↑ Kettler again in crisis . www.spiegel.de, July 31, 2019.
  19. ↑ Kettcar manufacturer Kettler is again insolvent. Retrieved August 4, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Kettler files for bankruptcy: That's what the company says. July 31, 2019, accessed August 4, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Kettler: The last days of a traditional company. January 31, 2020, accessed June 25, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Kettler - a successful restart. Retrieved August 4, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Zug-based company brings new CEO - this woman should make the ailing Kettler brand fit again. July 22, 2020, accessed August 4, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Florian Langenscheidt (Ed.): German Standards: Brands of the Century . Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-8349-0436-2 , pp. 279 .
  25. ^ Delius-Klasing: industrial monument . In: Trekkingbike , No. 6, November 2009, pp. 22-25.
  26. ↑ Bonanzero: When were the first aluminum frames available? www.rennrad-news.de, January 22, 2017, accessed on January 22, 2017 .
  27. ↑ bva-media: 30 years of Kettler aluminum wheels: Kettler is releasing the »2600«! In: Active cycling . August 19, 2009 ( aktiv-radfahren.de [accessed January 22, 2017]).

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 5.2 "  N , 7 ° 57 ′ 29.2"  E