Wala remedies

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WALA Heilmittel GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1935
Seat Bad Boll , Germany
management Johannes Stellmann (Chairman), Armin Dörr, Philip Lettmann, Florian Stintzing
Number of employees 1,024 (2018)
sales EUR 138.6 million (2018)
Branch Pharma and Cosmetics
Website www.wala.de

The WALA Remedies GmbH (short: WALA ) is one of Rudolf Hauschka vested in 1935 companies , which in accordance with the anthroposophic worldview drug (approximately 900 products) and cosmetics (130 products) manufactures. The name WALA is derived from the initials of the manufacturing process warmth - ash , light - ash .

Products and brands

The WALA Heilmittel GmbH company from Bad Boll in Swabia includes the WALA Arzneimittel brand and Dr. Hauschka Cosmetics and the Dr. Hauschka Med . Under the Dr. Hauschka produces WALA exclusively natural cosmetics. All products from Dr. Hauschka are certified by the Natrue seal of approval for genuine natural and organic cosmetics.

WALA pharmaceuticals are sold in pharmacies , while non-pharmacy -only pharmaceuticals are also sold in health food stores . Dr. Hauschka Cosmetics and Dr. Hauschka Med preparations were initially only sold in specialist shops in the narrower sense (organic shops, health food stores, pharmacies and Dr. Hauschka cosmeticians). Since the beginning of 2007, the brand's sales policy has been changed. It should establish itself as a luxury brand in the natural cosmetics range, which is why it is widely sold in perfumeries and department stores ( Karstadt , KaDeWe ).

history

In the 1920s, the chemist Rudolf Hauschka was looking for new forms of drug preparation and came into contact with the founder of anthroposophy , Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). On his advice: "Study the rhythms, rhythm carries life" , Hauschka developed a "rhythmic manufacturing process" with which he was able to produce an "aqueous plant extract that can be kept for over 30 years" without having to use traditional preservation with alcohol (roses, 1929). The manufacturing process includes "WALA": heating-cooling, exposure-darkening.

Hauschka manufactured products on the basis of this process and founded the first WALA laboratory in Ludwigsburg in 1935 . During this time, the corporate principles that still apply today were formulated. Because of the prohibition of anthroposophy in the Third Reich and Hauschka's Gestapo imprisonment, the WALA laboratory had to close in 1941.

In 1947, Hauschka reopened WALA after the war, at that time on the site of the biological-homeopathic hospital in Höllriegelskreuth near Munich , which was managed by Margarethe Hauschka-Stavenhagen until 1950 . In 1950 the company, which then employed 7 people, moved to Eckwälden near Bad Boll . On January 1, 1953, Rudolf Hauschka, Margarethe Hauschka-Stavenhagen, the laboratory manager Maja Mewes and the businessman Max Kaphahn converted WALA into an open trading company (OHG), the WALA drug laboratory Dr. R. Hauschka OHG , which was split up in 1979 into a holding company ( WALA-Heilmittel Dr. Hauschka OHG ) and an operating company ( WALA Heilmittel GmbH ).

From 1967 the cosmetic product line was built up by Elisabeth Sigmund .

In 1986 WALA was divided into two foundation companies, the WALA Foundation (100% shareholder of WALA Heilmittel GmbH) and Dr. Hauschka Foundation , with endowment capital of DM 2.7 million. The company serves the purpose of the foundation and a change of ownership is excluded. In 1983 the company had around 175 employees and an annual turnover of around 17 million DM; In 2009 there were around 700 employees and a turnover of 96 million euros. With the annual financial statements for the 2018 financial year, the number of employees had risen to 1,024. The turnover in 2018 was 138.6 million euros.

Criticism and controversy

In 2012 it became known that Wala was financing several websites with Claus Fritzsche , who described himself as a journalist and dedicated himself to defaming critics of complementary medical practices. Fritzsche used different servers that were linked to one another, so that the search results u. a. manipulated by Google and thus bring criticism to the fore. A victim of this practice was e.g. B. the British researcher Edzard Ernst .

In the summer of 2009 the premises were searched by employees of the Federal Cartel Office . The agency suspected that the company was dictating sales prices to its dealers. A company spokesman, however, rejected the allegations. At the end of July 2013 the proceedings were ended with a settlement; The Federal Cartel Office imposed fines totaling 6.5 million euros on the company and responsible employees.

literature

  • Florian K. Öxler: WALA Heilmittel in Bad Boll and its historical company archive. A story with a difficult start . In: Archive and Economy, Vol. 52, 2019, Issue 1, pp. 6-14.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wala website , accessed December 29, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2018 in the electronic Federal Gazette
  3. ↑ Federal Gazette: Annual financial statements for the business year from 01/01/2018 to 12/31/2018. Bundesanzeiger Verlag, accessed on July 16, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Real natural and organic cosmetics. Accessed July 31, 2020 .
  5. ↑ WALA Foundation: Articles of Association
  6. ^ Peter Brügge : Die Anthroposophen, Spiegel Verlag Hamburg, 1984
  7. ^ Homeopathy lobby on the net - Dirty methods of gentle medicine , article in the Süddeutsche from June 30, 2012, accessed on August 8, 2012
  8. ↑ a b SÜDWEST PRESSE: ( page no longer available , search in web archives: raid by the Cartel Office near the Wala ), report of the Geislinger Zeitung of August 12, 2009.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.suedwest-aktiv.de
  9. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: ended by mutual agreement: Federal Cartel Office proceedings against WALA (PDF; 51 kB). ) WALA press release, July 31, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dr.hauschka.de
  10. ↑ Fine against WALA Heilmittel GmbH for vertical price fixing at Dr. Hauschka cosmetics. Press release from the Federal Cartel Office dated July 31, 2013.