Pouch boats
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Pouch is the abbreviation for Poucher Faltboot GmbH , a German folding boat manufacturer. It bears the name of his hometown Pouch , which is located on the Muldestausee and the Großer Goitzschesee near Bitterfeld .
history
The origins of the company lie in the Pouch municipal district operation founded in 1950 . He manufactured special textiles such as rain capes and work clothes. In 1953 the production of folding boats began in the VEB plastic and textile processing plant Pouch . In the following years the folding boat production of other GDR manufacturers was relocated to Pouch. Under the name VEB Water Sports and Camping Equipment Pouch , production was expanded to include camping accessories in 1957 . At the end of the 1960s, the folding boat and camping production were separated. The Poucher factory became part of the VEB Favorit Taucha .
During the GDR era, 68 employees produced 7,000 folding boats a year, 6,000 of which were exported; the tents , rucksacks and folding boats were also produced for export to the FRG. There the boats were not only offered cheaply in mail order companies, but also re-labeled at West German folding boat yards. For example, at the former traditional shipyard Germania and sold as a folding boat made in-house. In times of declining sales on the West German market, in the 1960s and 70s, this was cheaper than producing your own boats. The (West German) Stiftung Warentest judged the “Pouch RZ 85-3” in its test booklet from April 1979: very good high-speed properties, safe driving behavior, easy entry and exit and transport, but only satisfactory material properties, difficult structure and poor seating comfort as well as satisfactory Sailing characteristics (boat drifts). The test winner was the " Klepper Aerius II", which was offered on the West German market at 1590 DM but also exactly three times as expensive as the RZ 85-3 at 534 DM.
After reunification , the company had to struggle for survival for a short time, but after an improvement in quality and the opening up of new markets, Poucher Boats GmbH , founded in 1991, now successfully sells boats, sails and also makes skins for other boat manufacturers. In addition to the modernized forms of classic folding boats, new models are also produced. In the last few years around 300 folding boats have been produced by around a dozen employees each year.
The company filed for bankruptcy at the end of December 2015, and insolvency proceedings were opened in February 2016.
On June 1, 2016, the company started with a new investor and a new name as Poucher Faltboot GmbH . Eight employees are employed. 95 boats were sold in 2016; In 2015 there were 78 boats.
In spring 2018, the shipyard was renamed again to PFB Faltboot GmbH , and according to its own information, it sells 70 boats a year. In the middle of the year the type E65 was reissued.
Models
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Model range of the past
During the GDR era, Pouch manufactured the following folding kayaks:
- An E 65
- Kielsport double KS 75 (1953-1960)
- Sports double Z 75
- Wandering double (W) Z 80 (1953–?)
- Weekend two WEZ 80
- Travel double RZ 85
In 1958 there was a light folding motor and sailing boat "Delphin D 110". From 1959 onwards, construction was continued in the state-owned Mathias Thesen shipyard in Wismar .
Current models
Pouch currently offers seven kayaks and one folding canoe . The type designation consists of a letter for the type of boat and a number that indicates the boat width in centimeters for the older models and the year of first production for the newer boats.
- Travel double RZ 85
- Travel twos RZ 96
- Langeiner LE 14
- Family double FZ 13
Discontinued models
The following models were developed after reunification and are no longer in production:
- Sports double SZ 2004
- Sport of an SE 2005
- Briefly a KE 2007
- An E 65
- Zweier / Langeiner Phoenix 2011
- Canoe K3 2010
- Sport of a CR 12
- A FaltEski
- A single in 2000
- Two Speed Liner (prototype)
- Canoe folding canoe (4-seater)
- Canoe K3 2005 (3-seater)
literature
- Pouch - folding boats for life. In: Oliver Errichiello, Arnd Zschiesche : Success Secret East. Survival strategies from the best brands - and what managers can learn from them. Gabler Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8349-1615-0 , pp. 185 f.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Transparent workshop of the company Pouch youtube.de, accessed on August 31, 2015
- ↑ 90 years of the Bad Tölz Pioneer folding boat yard, museum catalog, page 57
- ↑ Folding boats made of pouch niche product from GDR times still very popular on mz-web.de, accessed on August 31, 2015
- ↑ History Pouch , on pouch-inoffiziell.de, accessed on August 31, 2015
- ↑ Poucher Boats GmbH (Stendal District Court file number: HRB 11035), entry in the commercial register from December 29, 2015, via Unternehmerregister.de , accessed on January 29, 2016.
- ↑ Insolvency of Poucher Boats GmbH: If there is hope for the gem , Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of February 9, 2016, accessed on April 19, 2016
- ↑ After bankruptcy and restart: Poucher Boats explore the market on mz-web.de/, accessed on December 6, 2016
- ↑ Kult Faltboot turns 65 - classic pouch folding boats revised for the anniversary , Mitteldeutsche Zeitung from August 18, 2018, accessed on September 14, 2018
- ↑ According to the company website, the pouchers made a hiking double WZ 80. Once upon a time there was an Eskimo ... ( Memento from September 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) According to the imprint and assembly instructions, the hiking double at the time of the company name VEB (K) Kunststoff- und Textilveredelungswerk with the logo KTW Pouch VEB (K) was a Z80 . [1]
- ↑ Pouch - Brochure from 1958 for the D110