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In 1880 Margarete Steiff founded the Margarete Steiff GmbH in Giengen that first produced felt products and later cuddly toys. As Margarete left no children, her nine nieces and nephews inherited her company – one of them was Richard Steiff, who designed the first teddy bear in 1902. Steiff has always been a synonym for high-quality toys "Made in Germany". Throughout history, the Steiff family has always maintained control over the company – investors outside the family have always been unwanted. During the last few years, Steiff experienced dramatic losses in sales of classic plush toys and on the collector’s market – due to unfavourable company policy and falling consumer’s demand. During the crisis in 2004, first dismissals for operational reasons followed. The Steiff company had long refused to move production sites to low-wage countries, but changed their strategies in 2005, when they contracted production partners in China for their Cosy Friends line. Today two Chinese factories produce plush toys for Steiff and about 40 percent of the whole product portfolio are "Made in China". The new, affordable lines of sweet, cuddly plush toys mainly target younger consumers and the new strategy seems to pay off. Nevertheless, Steiff’s sales remained unchanged at 90 million Euros in 2006. The changes in business strategy might have come too late or too slowly. And maybe Steiff should have adapted their distribution channels to the new conditions. Two years ago, Hussmanns himself dismissed two managers of the Margarete Steiff GmbH, Friedhelm Brandau and Uwe Kleinow and took over management together with Werner Maier. He argued that both managers had been to slow at realizing the reorientation of Steiff’s business strategies. Now he’s is leaving himself … |
and been acting as interim CEO of the 