Stefanie Hering shakes her head and runs her hand through her hair: “You’re speechless. “That’s a situation where you think about: should we leave it in Germany or should we go out too?”
This is how the entrepreneur, who has created a global brand in the porcelain sector, reacts to Robert Habeck’s statement that a company that no longer has any orders does not need to file for bankruptcy, it just needs to stop working.
Stefanie Hering, who has already experienced several brutal crises such as the financial crisis or Corona, sees the current situation as “absolutely critical,” as she tells the Berliner Zeitung in the Berlin headquarters of her company in a Wilhelminian style villa in Zehlendorf: Above all Like most other companies in Germany, high prices are a problem for her: “That’s what we’re still gnawing at today, and that’s where we’ll also suffer one or two losses, that companies are simply going through the motions and can’t do it anymore.”
She was able to use Corona to advance digitalization, she invested in the brand and in new markets, and took advantage of government funding: “That helped a lot,” says Hering. During Corona, the first thing was the substance: Hering lost 44 percent of its sales because the company makes half of its sales from the hotel and catering industry. 2019 was still a very successful year. A year later, the entrepreneur asked herself: “If I close the shop now, where do I go from here?” You’ve had a few sleepless nights.” She restlessly made new business plans to be prepared for eventualities and sold the silverware. The company survived. Because Corona brought a “double push”: everyone suddenly cared about what things looked like at home. Instead of vacationing, people bought dishes. After the pandemic, when restaurants reopened, everyone suddenly paid attention to quality: “Our high-quality products were suddenly even more in demand.”
German precision: Hering’s best-known line “Cielo” meets this expectation with hand-punched holes.Jens Boesenberg
However, the Berliners were also saved by an incredible coincidence at the Reichenbach porcelain factory in Thuringia. Reichenbach and Hering work closely together. The designs and templates for plates, cups and other tableware are created in Berlin. Manufactured in Thuringia. When Corona threatened a serious crisis, Reichenbach landed a “six in the lottery,” as Stefanie Hering says: “At that time, they had placed a product in the film “Parasite.” One of Reichenbacher’s dishes was featured in a Koranic feature film that won an Oscar; and a clever Korean found out where the dishes could be bought and imported them into Korea. They then had full order books for two years during Corona. That saved us both.”
Since Corona, the strange economic policy in Germany has been causing problems for companies. Energy crisis, supply chains, disposal, materials – many of these areas were previously not relevant in the calculation because they were only cent amounts. Today the higher costs are significant, you have to calculate them further, “and then you get an annual increase in prices of 10 to 15 percent.” Wages have to keep up so that the often family-run businesses remain attractive: “If a father or mother worked in a company and tells their son or daughter to do the job, then they have to be able to feed the family.” The increases in prices have an effect affects customers, “again and again and again, and then you lose because you’re too expensive.” Production is more expensive in Germany than in other countries. Stefanie Hering points to the much lower energy prices in France. The plaster molds now cost three times as much as before and disposal is more expensive. Hering says: “At some point it will be a shot in the neck, or you have to say it’s no longer worth it.”
She herself has changed her company’s sales strategy: for the first time in the first quarter of 2024, more offers were written for the American market than for the German one. In the light sector, in which Hering also produces, she could also move production to the USA. She has founded a branch there: “Our goods currently cost 1.6 times as much in the USA as in Germany, we have to produce there.” She wants to keep other areas in Germany for as long as possible: “I would always do the porcelain produce here,” says Stefanie Hering: “I still trust in Germany and Europe, we have excellent training centers.”
Stefanie Hering Adahlia Cole Gaggenau
However, in order to avoid a fate like that of the traditional Thuringian manufacturer Eschenbach, which had to close a year ago after 130 years, Hering is focusing on strengthening its market position in the luxury segment. In this league of studio manufacturers, only Nymphenburg plays alongside Hering from Germany. In addition to the USA, new markets include the Middle East, and “the gate to India is also opening”. Taiwan has been a customer for a long time, and the People’s Republic of China is also calling. “The fact that we are able to equip the Eastern and Oriental Express, which runs between Bangkok and Singapore, naturally inspires us.” The clientele for tailor-made porcelain in the contemporary modern segment is worldwide: “You have to see how you get the cream,” says the entrepreneur.
Hering’s international breakthrough is a German-German success story. When Stefanie Hering decided to conquer the world in 1999 with just six employees in a small workshop on Lychener Straße in Prenzlauer Berg, she started looking for a business partner. In order to produce tableware, it required a larger production than she could have achieved with her single oven. Hering wanted to implement the bisque porcelain typical of her design. She says: “We sent a classic paper tender to the companies in question. Suddenly Günter Burgold from Thuringia appeared at the door. I was so perplexed that I even forgot to offer him a coffee.” Reichenbach’s boss had gone to Berlin and told the young designer: “I’m totally fascinated by what you’re doing “I want to have the order, I want to work with you,” says Hering.
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Günter Burgold, who died in 2023, was appointed head of VEB Reichenbach during the GDR era – a classic Eastern career. The company, originally a family business specializing in cobalt painting, had already renovated the production facility before the fall of the Wall, acquired foreign currency and installed new ovens. While many others had to close, Burgold was full of enthusiasm for the new freedoms in unified Germany. Stefanie Hering says: “It was important for Günter: You go to the Frankfurt trade fair for the first time and you see: Damn, everything is produced here, what else do I want there? What is my specialty?”
Hering appreciates the Easterner’s contribution to her own success: “Without Günter Burgold we wouldn’t have been able to develop like we did, definitely.” So a development worker from the East? Stefanie Hering laughs: “I helped him too! We have benefited from each other. When I drove back via Reichenbach after a congress in Selb in 2004, I said: Hey, we have to change something, we have to make dishes for the 21st century.” It was the time when the chefs became the stars. Burgold got in. Together, Hering and Reichenbach developed 150 different shapes and set standards together: “So much commitment went into it from all sides that today we have a product that is unique and not that easy to copy,” says Hering.
Jens Boesenberg
Her own path led her from West German provinciality to an international career. She comes from a family of craftsmen, but without a golden background: one grandfather was a wagon maker, “he made the wheels by hand”, another grandfather had a small agricultural business, her father had trained as a tool maker and eventually went to work for Mercedes Benz. At the age of 16, Hering, now 57, decided to become a ceramicist. She wanted to “manufacture everything herself, from the original form of the earth to the final product”. Crafts were popular back then, it was an alternative lifestyle: “You could become a potter or a goldsmith or a florist,” there were no hurdles, apprenticeships were in great demand because society needed craftsmen: “It was a time when we didn’t have any shopping – and sales giants, there was no Ikea, no Strauss Innovation, no Butler’s,” says Hering.
She went to Ireland and Denmark. Eventually she ended up with a ceramicist who was expelled from the GDR. This was followed by trade fairs in New York and Japan. And finally the success with the West-East model company. It is in keeping with her nature that she does not react to the current problems in a snivelling way, but rather with a clear statement: “We have to get out of the land of tears, stop whining, squeeze our butts together and say: let’s move on!”
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