Reflect Everyday

The trading company vpz. Verpackungszentrum has been committed to ecological product development in the area of food packaging since the 1980s. Bettina Reichl is responsible for design, research & development and communication in the family business founded by her father Helmut Meininger and her sister Susanne Meininger. After almost 30 years of research, the company made a breakthrough in 2012 with compostable packaging, which is manufactured in Austria and distributed internationally under the name Packnatur® Cellulose Netzschlauch. In the interview, the trained fashion designer talks about interdisciplinary thinking and intercultural experiences as a basis for sustainable problem solutions.

Sabine Dreher: You have made a name for yourself with your fashion label ODROWĄŻ, but also as a co-founder of various initiatives in the fashion sector since the 1990s. What motivated you to join the family business at the same time?

Bettina Reichl: The creative development of the company was always an issue at the family table. When my sister asked me, on the occasion of the company’s tenth anniversary, whether I would like to create a fashion show using its packaging and subsequently encouraged me to get involved in the field of packaging design, I was immediately on board. At that time, the first research project was already underway with Graz University of Technology, which looked at the possibility of producing algae-based foams. After I was professionally interested in biology and animal behavior research before training as a fashion designer, it suited me to get involved in research and development right from the start.

SD: Was it obvious back then for a trading company to invest in research into unconventional raw materials?

BR: After we heard that the Graz landfill in Frohnleiten was full, it came as a shock and we decided to take up responsibility in our industry and reconsider biogenic packaging. We felt a strong affinity for nature and wanted to promote everything that was possible in our industry and actively contribute to improving the situation. We increasingly looked for ecological packaging on the market, but found little. This was the reason to start developing ourselves in cooperation with external research institutes. While working at the university, it became clear to me that the key to future-oriented ecological product design lies in material development. The first project in 1994 was specifically about a Styrofoam replacement made from algae, and in 1996 we started a second research collaboration with a focus on bioplastics made from plant residues. The third project followed in 1997: nets made of natural fibers. With this we are now most successful because of the technical breakthrough. Thanks to a partnership with the Ja! Natürlich brand by REWE Group we also achieved a market breakthrough in Austria. We found it interesting that you can gain added value from components of plants, wood chips or waste from frozen production and, on our own initiative, invested the entire company profit in research for many years. For us, networking with science was groundbreaking, even if we didn’t even understand methods back then that are now state of the art. The fact that gaseous CO2 could be used as food for the production of solid bioplastics sounded like science fiction. Today, polyester-like solids are obtained by adding microorganisms that feed on CO2 and used to make shampoo bottles, for example. This is not science fiction, but a groundbreaking innovation.

SD: Where did you find support in such forward-looking commitment?

BR: We networked with other players in the areas of natural substances and compostable materials to form a community of interests. One of them was the company Biopac, which later sold its idea of pressing edible packaging from starch to the USA because it was simply too early for the European market. In terms of PR, the edible packaging was a huge success, but after major customers in Austria were unwilling to accept a small price increase, even after ten years of successful use, Biopac gave up and sold. It often happens in Europe that the industry reacts sluggishly to innovations and there is also a lack of political will to reguide consumers. As a result, we miss the economic exploitation of such developments. The USA is quicker and more forward-looking in this regard. You buy patents there because you know that the switch to ecological packaging has to come sooner or later. Plastic cannot be replaced overnight, but many things are possible.

SD: How do you manage to attract buyers for your range of biogenic packaging beyond legal regulations?

BR: We used to be a pure trading company specializing in food packaging for fresh products. We put together everything a sales department needs. This business funded our research. At the same time, we will try to persuade our customers to switch to biogenic packaging. To this day, the slightly higher production costs compared to petroleum products are the killer argument against biogenic packaging. However, the environmental damage caused by plastic is not taken into account. We support our customers in communicating their commitment to a clean environment in marketing, because this is a start in the fight against the waste problem. The goal should be to completely avoid plastic in the disposable sector.

SD: That sounds very ambitious. How is this supposed to succeed?

BR: Among other things, you have to develop alternative types of preservation. A vacuum bag for fresh meat, for example, is a challenging issue and not so easy to solve with natural materials. When it comes to the goal of replacing plastic 100%, you can’t go into too much detail because you quickly encounter limitations. At the same time, there are many areas in which one door after another is opening, as research with bioplastics made from CO2 shows. At a certain point, the scientists ask us clearly about our ideas, because this is the only way they can steer their research in a meaningful, application-oriented direction.

SD: Packaging is an element that protects the product, provides information but also sends tactile and sensory stimuli. Your portfolio works heavily with haptic and design parameters. How do you bring them into play?

BR: When we presented the first groundwood bowls for strawberries, people said to us: ​“That sounds reasonable, but we think the blue plastic bowls are nicer because they show off the strawberries much better.” Today the aesthetic feeling is different. In order to increase awareness of ecology, we need to educate people about the usefulness of such packaging when communicating. The food waste movement, which focuses on how much food we throw away without consuming it, also helps. Worldwide, around ¹⁄₃ of all food produced spoils during transport to the consumer due to missing or inadequate packaging. You reach an unconscious, sensual level through the products’ appearance. If we as designers encourage people to reach for beauty, then in the best case scenario that is the right thing to do.

SD: Can you please explain in more detail what quality characterizes the Packnatur® wooden net?

BR: The net is a round-knit endless tube, the fiber itself is made by Lenzing AG in its factory in Upper Austria from beech wood, which in turn is obtained from the thinning of certified domestic forests. Small wood is a waste product that cannot be used in industry; such removal maintains the forest. I first came into contact with this fiber as a fashion designer because I have always enjoyed working with regional natural materials such as loden and linen. The innovative wood fiber immediately inspired me. During research at Lenzing, we also came across packaging and started a cooperation project in which we successfully tried to use cellulose for net production.

SD: How do you see your dual role as a fashion designer and pioneer in the packaging industry?

BR: The synergies can now be clearly identified. Packaging is also a kind of dress for the product and now that we have established a focus on textiles in the packaging area, I can work with wood-based raw materials in both areas. Although cotton is well established, growing it is simply not environmentally friendly. Not least because of the new fuels, we are experiencing competition for arable land. We cannot cultivate all the raw materials we need and must pay more attention to how we distribute resources. Wherever we find building blocks in nature, preferably agricultural residues or self-regenerating plants, we should use them.

SD: The wooden nets are a quantum leap for your company and a great innovation in the food trade. At the same time, you personally convey a more experimental approach with a penchant for new ideas. How do you combine these different approaches in practice?

BR: When it comes to international sales, we rely on cooperation partners who actively work with our brand, because we don’t want to cover everything ourselves, but rather continue to concentrate our capacities on developing new things. I like to put myself in a kind of laboratory situation and experiment without others stopping me too quickly. Ultimately, thanks to this method and in collaboration with the industry, we, as a small company, managed to bring a mass product onto the market that large companies are trying to copy. That’s perfectly fine, because the market should make important innovations that enable the switch from plastic to wood accessible to the whole world. This requires several players. We see ourselves as an ideas laboratory that deals with things with which we don’t primarily make money, but can effect a difference.

SD: What specifically has started happening with your customers?

BR: Unlike before, companies like Rewe and Coop in Switzerland are now actively thinking about their packaging themselves and are including us as a development laboratory in a dialogue. There is also a lot of focus on reusable solutions made from wood fibers in the bag and carrier bag area, e.g. for purchasing loose fruit and vegetables, in order to avoid packaging as much as possible and to use it multiple times. Ultimately, all packaging we develop is compostable. The specially developed brand Packnatur® conveys this vision and is also the brand with which we appear internationally.

SD: With the Packnatur® Cellulose Tube Netting, vpz. expanded from trading company to manufacturer. Which adjustments did this require?

BR: The company is growing very quickly. In 2019 we set up our own production in Neudau in Eastern Styria. The fourth hall is now being built there. After a large part of the European textile industry was outsourced to Asia, we found one of the last remaining yarn production facilities in Europe in Neudau. Unfortunately, the spinning mill that originally cooperated with us no longer exists today, but we were lucky enough to take on former employees with the relevant know-how and, conversely, were able to give these specialists employment prospects with new design ideas. Today we deliver our product to supermarket chains from the USA to New Zealand. In Europe alone, around 30,000 tons of plastic nets are used for food packaging every year. We were able to replace around 1,400 tons of this with wood. Measured in running meters, we could have wrapped the entire earth five times with this innovation from Austria.

SD: Does the success of the wood-based net packaging slow down your ongoing research with other biogenic materials?

BR: Of course, expanding our capacities in the wood net sector and establishing Packnatur® tied up a lot of resources. This system is easy for the packers to use because the same machines that were used to put the plastic net on can now be used to put on wooden nets. This means we can bring about a lot of change at the moment. But we are still in active contact with the relevant people from research regarding the algae project and are activating and pursuing the know-how at any time. We built a pilot plant for this and carried out preliminary industrial tests. What we are not yet able to do is set up large-scale industrial production. We lack the technical know-how and investment capital for this. In this regard, we have already sat at the table with international chemical companies, but we realized that large companies are sluggish and shy away from the risk of investing in something new. It is more interesting to cooperate with smaller companies that really want to make a difference. The unused huge algae resources that form veritable forests in the seas and regenerate themselves in short growth intervals have enormous potential.

SD: Aside from your affinity for nature, you also seek intercultural exchange in your fashion projects. What benefit is in it for you?

BR: For intercultural fashion projects, I traveled to countries like Cuba, Niger, Mongolia or Sri Lanka, which are not primarily associated with the fashion industry. I’m interested in craftsmanship, because fast fashion means that cultural assets get lost and people are dressed the same everywhere. With the globalization of taste, regional clothing traditions and the workshops that produce them are disappearing. I organize projects in which local designers meet with international protagonists to think together about the culture of clothing. I would like to encourage other people to use their creativity to solve global problems together. Conversely, I learned something very important from the nomads in Mongolia: when you drive through the endless steppe and see no infrastructure, you ask yourself how the people can exist there. I have the idea that they succeed because they are so closely connected to their environment that they would never do anything that causes harm. When the nomads take down their yurts, they also clear away their rubbish, leaving nothing behind but a circle of dry grass because they know they will come back next year. They thank the place that has enabled them and their animals to make a good living. This is a wonderful gesture. It is an expression of an attitude that everyone should achieve: the desire to leave a place more beautiful than when you found it.

vpz. Verpackungszentrum
Anton-Mell-Weg 14
8053 Graz

www​.pack​natur​.at

In 2016, industrial designer Valentin Vodev and business developer Valerie Wolff introduce the first VELLO
e‑folding bike and start a crowdfunding campaign to finance the production of the first series of 500 folding bikes. In autumn 2023, over 10,000 VELLOs will be on the road, including ultra-light cargo bikes with electric motors. Co-Managing Director Valerie Wolff describes the advantages of organic growth based on a clear vision, transparent structures and the backing of an enthusiastic community.

Sabine Dreher: What was your personal background before you took over the business development of VELLO?

Valerie Wolff: I studied economics, I know my way around numbers and marketing, but I definitely have an affinity for design. Product development began in 2014, three years later Valentin and I founded a GmbH as equal partners, with which we started the commercialization of the folding bike.

SD: Your success story sounds like a fairy tale. Did it just happen to you or was the development strategically planned?

VW: Our basic idea was: »Design your own future«. We wanted to develop a better city and asked ourselves: How do we want to live? How do our children want to live? What can we contribute to this? That’s when we came up with the idea of cycling. We are lucky to live in Vienna, a city with a well-developed public transport network where it is easy to do without a car. Of course, you also have to be a little naïve about the financial resources required to successfully launch a new product commercially. The project was born out of passion. The common basic idea of »Let’s make the world better« led us to crowdfunding. This way we wanted to try out the implementation.

SD: How can we imagine that specifically? You had a vision, an idea and a certain confirmation from those around you. What gave you the confidence that it would work?

VW: In 2016 we were able to present a sophisticated prototype with which we raised one million euros in a short time with 500 supporters and without any investors. With so many pre-orders, we sensed like people wanted this product. At the same time, we felt the pressure of having to deliver, and exactly at the price at which we had offered the bike. At that point we went full speed and founded the GmbH. After that, a lot happened by accident. We had presented a business plan, milestones and a pitch deck to appeal to large investors, but in the end we did everything ourselves.

SD: Did the initial prototype have to be adjusted before the first series was produced?

VW: In 2014 we started with the idea for a small compact bike that could also fit in an elevator. When we showed the first twenty pieces, we quickly realized that this wasn’t enough. A product needs a clear category. Either you can fold it completely or not. Something in between doesn’t work. We therefore used the crowdfunding campaign in 2016 to further develop the first small series with a new fold and introduced an additional unique selling point with self-loading technology. Our competitor, the English manufacturer Brompton, did not yet have an electric version at the time. When we came out with the lightest electric folding bike with connectivity, we were able to capture these keywords and so VELLO is now known as the self-loading, super light electric folding bike with belt drive, made in Austria.

SD: How did it progress after the delivery of the first 500 folding bikes?

VW: After that, the question immediately arose about setting up a dealer network, because: What would happen if people needed support for their bikes? Some people had already asked us about it. Within a year we sold the VELLO through the first 30 partners, who also offer customers the necessary services. The customer experience, the certainty that everything is considered and works well, is of course very important.

SD: Did you meanwhile take investors on board or are you still financing the growth through the community?

VW: We still don’t have any investors. Valentin and I each have a 50% stake in VELLO Gmbh. We now have a few focus markets, but we continue to expand.

SD: You mention Brompton as a competitor. The English pioneer in folding bikes has been in business since 1975 and, according to its own information, delivered over 100,000 bicycles in 2022 with 800 employees. How do you operate as a start-up in such a business environment?

VW: This manufacturer has developed very slowly over many years. Investments were made in expensive machines. Our advantage is that we are young and can do many things differently, we design the VELLO with the latest state of the art technology. We can partner with new, innovative players in the market. For example, with Giovanni, the inventor of our engine. He holds a doctorate from the Polytechnic of Milan. We met him by chance at a trade fair and saw his newly developed self-charging motor, which automatically detects when it can recover energy, for example when driving downhill. Instead of a chain with wearing parts, we use a low-maintenance belt drive. We use the best disc brakes and 20-inch tires. In 2016, we brought together the latest available components to create the best-riding folding bike. While folding bikes were once designed for short distances, we bridged that gap and launched a folding bike for every mile.

SD: Your success confirms your approach. How big is the team now and how do you organize the production?

VW: 2018 we started with two people and are now 30. There are a few special parts that we have produced in different countries. Standard parts such as frames, belts or disc brakes are assembled in our production in the district of Meidling in Vienna.

SD: Sales of folding bikes have experienced an enormous boom. Can you use a few key figures to outline what this means for your production?

VW: If we had brought external investors on board, our numbers would probably have quadrupled thanks to the higher liquidity. But that’s not the case. So, because we had to order and partially pay for our components up to two years in advance during the pandemic, the planning ahead was restricted. The corona pandemic exacerbated the situation with the supply chains. Where the order deadlines previously lasted four months, they suddenly took two years. Therefore, we were unable to respond as the market would have permitted.

SD: What formula do you use as managing director to plan your growth?

VW: In the financial plan, I assume that sales will increase by at least 40 percent per year. In 2023 we will have sales of around four million euros, which corresponds to around 3,500 bicycles, although we will see exactly where that will settle down, because the delays from the last few years have been worked through and so we are not expecting any further delivery problems.

SD: The city of Vienna is currently funding the purchase of folding bikes with up to 600 euros and the purchase of a cargo bike with up to 2000 euros. How does this promotion affect your sales?

VW: We recognize it. The funding came in March 2023 and triggered increased demand in Vienna. At the same time, we received complaints from our dealers in Germany in May who were worried about decreased sales due to the bad weather and a decline in purchasing power. In addition, the delayed orders from the major manufacturers from two years ago arrived there, meaning that many retailers were faced with liquidity problems. As a small manufacturer, we were able to react flexibly to this situation and took the soft way. We are increasingly serving the increased demand in Vienna in a specially set up pop-up store and in our permanent shop. Thanks to the funding, we were able to add ten new people to our team instead of four.

SD: On your website one can see that you already supply a dense dealer network in Europe, but there are also three stores in Asia that offer VELLOs. Is the market outside of Europe interesting for you?

VW: It depends on the basic concept behind a partner. During the crowdfunding campaign, an enthusiastic fan in Australia wanted to buy 30 bicycles from us, but without the relevant background that doesn’t make much sense. When we work a market, we need reliable partners and structures.

SD: In your explanation you emphasize aspects that could be described as »soft issues«, i.e. social and communicative processes. What role does the community play in your marketing?

VW: We do almost exclusively organic marketing. So far we have invested our resources in serving the customers we already have. We grow through recommendations and hardly ever do paid advertising. What sets us apart from other brands is that we really have a story. The path we have chosen with crowdfunding means communicating completely transparently. In the initial phase, we send out a newsletter every month in which we provide information about all difficulties, hurdles and progress. Our community is social media savvy. In some cases the contacts were very personal and even helped to solve problems.

SD: Is the relationship with customers still the same?

VW: There are now over 10,000
VELLOs on the road and I notice that our story is present – that’s a joy.

SD: Your story is really awsome and incredibly inspiring. How will it continue in the next five to ten years?

VW: We are certainly continuing in the urban mobility sector and developing functional design for the city. We want to offer solutions that help people have no concerns about riding an electric VELLO through the city. It is theft-proof, you can get on the subway when it rains, and the recuperation means you don’t run the risk of leaking. During the development of the cargo bike, we learned in exchange with the community that many people shy away from the size and weight of a cargo bike because it is difficult to store in their basement compartment. With our light cargo bike, we reach people who previously did not take advantage of the generous funding from the City of Vienna because of such concerns. The SUB, on the other hand, is easy to stow away, you can use it to transport two children or loads of up to 210 kilos and, thanks to its lightness, carry the bike into the basement and stow it away to save space.

SD: Given the explosiveness of environmental crisis what external factors are necessary to give a successful product long-term tailwind?

VW: Whenever the idea of sustainability and climate-friendly development comes together with the economy, this constellation helps politicians to reach agreement and promote change. If, for example, a demand from the Greens to expand the cycle path network comes up against a demand from business representatives for parking spaces in front of shopping centers, a functionally well thought-out product that also generates jobs and added value shows a solution. This constellation is the key with which we can make substantial progress.

VELLO
Reinprechtsdorfer Straße 58 – 60
1050 Wien

www​.vel​lo​.bike

TYP Distribution & Design GmbH is a developer, manufacturer and distributor of furniture, objects and editions. Founded in Vienna in 2018 by Helen Thonet and Florian Lambl, the label sells a constantly growing collection. This includes new editions of furniture designs from the 1930s, expanded with contemporary commissioned works and graphic editions. The program, which is geared towards project business, is to be made known through an internet platform, a road show and showrooms. In an interview, Helen Thonet provides information about the company‘s motivation and objectives.

Sabine Dreher: Your name stands for the legendary furniture manufacturer who revolutionized furniture making from the mid-19^th century onwards. The core of the collection of the company you are building up together with Florian Lambl consists of furniture designs from the 1930s. How did this initiative come about?

Helen Thonet: Florian and I come from the same industry, so to speak. We‘ve known each other for a long time. He studied both communication and product design. Before founding his own office in 2004, he worked for Meike Meiré in Cologne. He has been running his own office in Berlin since 2006, which was responsible, among other things, for the entire brand image of the Italian furniture manufacturer Mattiazzi. Of course, I am shaped by my family background and, as my mother-in-law‘s successor, I am responsible for determining authenticity in the Thonet archive. We said: Something is missing. There is a niche we want to fill and we are looking for something new. Originally there was the idea of​publishing designs by women, but then we came across Erich Dieckmann, from whom we had seen a chair. We were thrilled that there are entire books with designs that have never been realised. We recognized the quality and wanted to change that. The TYP project started with the development of the D1 chair.

SD: How exactly did you approach the development and what scale did you have in mind when you started?

HT: Dieckmann is a special case. He has been dead for more than 75 years. Unlike most Bauhaus artists, Dickmann did not leave Germany; his creative work was prevented under the Nazi régime from 1933. He died in 1943 and since we could not find any descendants, licenses are not an issue. But our interest in Josef Albers‘ designs also met with goodwill and we were able to produce them immediately. The Italian legend Cini Boeri was visited by Florian in Milan shortly before her death in September 2020 and she personally approved the new edition of her Bacone sofa, which we have in the program. From the start, we also had the PEL Chair in our portfolio, a classic by the Austrian architect Bruno Pollack from 1931, which was particularly successful in England. Jasper Morrison revised the design and adapted it to today‘s requirements.

SD: How did you pull off the project?

HT: After we had not only Dieckmann, but also Albers, Boeri, Morrisson and a few others in our portfolio, we hired an American advertising agency for the promotion. The idea was to meet architects and so we initially wanted to publicize our program with a roadshow, but then the pandemic got in the way and we had to postpone this plan. We used the time to develop other products as well. That was a good opportunity to differentiate our range, but the lockdowns delayed the actual launch for a year and a half.

SD: You also offer graphic editions in your shop. What‘s up with the prints?

HT: We have two editions in the program No News Today by Meike Meiré is a screen print series with seven motifs in which Mike superimposes layout grids from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung with influences from the Bauhaus aesthetic. Beautiful Numbers by Stefan Sagmeister is a five-part series that visualizes the measurable results of positive social developments. Both editions match our orientation in terms of aesthetics and content and are therefore a coherent addition to our program.

SD: In an interview I read the sentence that you are looking for designs that are so ingenious and plausible that they can be produced economically and at reasonable prices.

HT: This applies particularly to Dieckmann. We didn‘t understand it that way at first, but when it came to production, it became apparent that we didn‘t need CNC milling and that there was hardly any waste during processing. It‘s similar at Albers. That‘s what characterizes our search movement, but maybe it is just exactly what we like, for example with Klemens Schillinger‘s designs. Everything is clearly thought out and the side effect is efficient production.

SD: The pandemic slowed you down, but you started your program anyway. Your goal is the project business, working with architects. How is your experience so far?

HT: Our plan works so far. We have presented the collection as far as possible. There were two stations on the road show; in Vienna and in Berlin. Our big tour has not been cancelled, it will definitely come, because such products need a physical presence, not least to give those interested the opportunity to check the quality of the craftsmanship. This is particularly important for architects because it is their responsibility that a product they use is really good. Just online this doesn‘t work.

SD: You have very high quality standards in terms of material and processing, which is done exclusively in Europe. What are the effects of the current price explosions on your production?

HT: We produce in Italy and source our upholstery from Slovenia. We still feel little of the price explosion. It may be that something is reflected in the transport costs, but otherwise we are not yet affected by it.

SD: What are your short-term and long-term plans for the future?

HT: We have to grow and we want to open up more. This includes that we will set up showrooms, also in connection with cafés. We want to show that our products work and are suitable for project business.

SD: What criteria do you use to select partners for your contemporary designs, or do opportunities just fly to you?

HT: We have different approaches, but yes, the contacts often come from our direct or extended environment, such as the current collaboration with the designer Magdalena Casadei.

SD: Could you describe which developments in contemporary design you find exciting at the moment? In layman‘s terms, it is sometimes hard to imagine that another chair is needed when there are already so many models.

HT: TYP is geared more towards the lifestyle market than developing new furniture. However, we don‘t necessarily want to be trendy, but also like to look in the opposite direction to most of our competitors, even if that might sound arrogant.

SD: I don‘t think so, but can you be more specific? Is your anti-cyclical bias characterized by looking to the past, or are there other factors that drive you?

HT: I think it‘s a mix. First and foremost we ask ourselves why produce new designs when there are so many perfect old designs that have never been produced. That‘s the case with Diekmann, for example, and then there‘s the other approach, like with Klemens Schillinger: We had an idea about a chair into a certain direction and when we happened to see it in a gallery, it was clear that it would fit well into our collection. We don‘t look strategically into the future, instead cultivate that impulsive approach that allows us to combine things. We see something and say: That‘s great. We do that.

SD: Although, in your work with the Thonet archive you cultivate a decidedly scientific and analytical view.

HT: Yes, that‘s true and it‘s always exciting to see how modern the furniture from the 1920s and 1930s is and how well it has been preserved decades later.

SD: What can we expect from you in the future?

HT: We have various projects running and are always open to new designs. The collection grows with experience and knowledge of the areas in which we want to supplement our range. Gut feeling is an important part, but ultimately every decision is based on an analysis and is deliberately made after an intensive discussion within the team, in which everyone involved brings in very different perspectives.

An important factor is of course the question under which conditions we can produce a design economically. We see ourselves as
a democratic furniture supplier because we aim to offer very good design at affordable prices. From this point of view we sometimes have to say goodbye to a project. For example, we had a lamp from Cini Boeri that we thought was great, but in marble it was too complex to make and too expensive. Something like that is sad, but it is an important aspect that the prices are right in the end.

TYP GmbH
Schlösselgasse 11/1/26
1080 Wien
Austria

www​.typ​.land

Reinhard Kepplinger (*1957) has been the owner and managing director of Grüne Erde, together with Kuno Haas since 1993. The company, which started in 1983 as a small ecological alternative business with initially a single product, now operates 14 shops in German-speaking countries and generates sales of approximately 76 million euros (FY 2020 – 21) with nearly 550 employees.

In an interview with Design Everyday, Reinhard Kepplinger talks about ecological values, natural raw materials and sustainable growth.

Sabine Dreher: Grüne Erde was founded almost 40 years ago according to a certain philosophy and with a strong vision. What distinguishes the attitude of the 1980s from the ecological lifestyle of today?

Reinhard Kepplinger: Not much in terms of values, if you look at the outer appearance it’s worlds. Back then, the green-alternative movement presented itself in a kind of cereal look. I, too, walked around in dungarees. In the meantime, not only do the products look different, but also the people behind them — but the values have remained the same. For us, the central idea has always been to combine ecology and social thinking with quality and durability.

SD: How has the role of aesthetics changed in this context?

RK: From the beginning, we distinguished ourselves from others who worked in this field because our concept of ecology was comprehensive. You can’t make ecological products without paying attention to aesthetics, because if after years you don’t like what you have, you will dispose of it and then the ecological advantage is gone. The design of our products should be timelessly appealing. In the very beginning, when we couldn’t afford designers, we followed the example of Japanese design. For our first cabinet, we used doors and old wooden joints that we borrowed from Japanese partitions. In Europe at that time, in the 1970s and 1980s, the old craft was thrown overboard and they had replaced the traditional material and form language with Resopal panels and composite materials.

SD: You say that as a small eco-company, they couldn’t afford designers back then. Could you turn that phrase around today and say that today you can’t afford to produce without designers?

RK: We started working with designers as soon as we could. The first real designer we worked with was a friend with whom I remodeled the showroom building. He was then the only one who designed furniture for us for a long time, because at that time a small alternative company was not a desirable reference. Working ecologically was not cool. But that has changed significantly in the last twenty years. Now we are in the fortunate position of being able to choose the designers we want to work with.

SD: Can you describe the process of a product development in more detail?

RK: It starts with a mix of analysis of our range in terms of function, material, validity and design guidelines. This incorporates feedback from our customers, ideas from employees, product management, sales and distribution. This results in a brief for the designer that defines our ideas relatively clearly. Most of the time, this is not implemented in one go, but rather in several rounds of working together to get to the product. The process from idea to production can take two to three years, depending on the difficulty and workflow, or – if everything fits – just half a year.

SD: How many new products are added to your range each year?

RK: We have a rule of thumb: We want to renew our range one hundred percent every ten years. This means that we renew about ten percent of the products per year, although this cannot be broken down to the individual product. There are classics, such as we have had in our range for 30 years. Our first product was a mattress, the Weiße Wolke, followed by bedroom furniture and comforters. In this area, we still have a big lead in terms of quality and comfort.

SD: Your product range is defined by its ecological credentials. How exactly do you achieve this?

RK: Our basic principle is that we use only renewable raw materials, wherever possible from controlled organic cultivation or controlled organic animal husbandry. We only make individual exceptions if the raw material is sufficiently available, as in the case of quartz sand for glass, for example, which we need for our lamps and cabinet doors. Since the length of transport routes is ecologically relevant, we primarily use materials that are locally available. The wood for our furniture must not be transported further than a maximum of 500 kilometers to the joinery. Normally, the sawmills that supply our joinery in Carinthia are located within a radius of 100 kilometers.

With our GOTS-certified natural mattresses we have to make compromises, because there are no domestic natural materials which, among other things, guarantee the elasticity of our mattresses. Therefore, our maxim for natural latex, coconut fiber or cotton is that they must come from controlled organic cultivation. For all Grüne Erde products, we pay attention to transparent supply chains. If we can no longer clearly trace where the raw material comes from and how it is processed, then we say goodbye to a material and look for an adequate substitute for it. As in the case of cashmere, for example, which we have stopped using since 2017 and instead process alpaca wool and yak hair. Our consistently ecological approach often requires a lot of fiddling around, but thanks to the high level of passion, commitment and creativity of our employees, we always find what we are looking for.

SD: What consequences do you expect from the current price explosion on the raw material markets?

RK: In our industry, this explosion has already happened. Prices for some woods have already risen extremely in the past year, textiles even up to 80 percent. After a heavy year, I expect the trend to catch up again. But yes, the price trend has already affected us. Nevertheless, we have more price stability than those who import entirely from China, since a high proportion of the value added is in Austria. 60 to 70 percent of the product range is produced in our own workshops in the Grüne Erde-Welt in Upper Austria and in the joinery in Carinthia. This gives us more price stability than those who import entirely from China.

SD: Where is the remaining 30 percent of your production manufactured?

RK: We employ a total of around 130 people in our production facilities. We also have long-term partnerships for special manufacturing methods. To give two examples: Our Grüne Erde furniture fabrics made from 100 % virgin sheep’s wool were created in three years of pioneering work together with the Gebrüder Mehler cloth factory and are woven in the Bavarian Upper Palatinate. The Akri carpet shown at the Vienna Design Week, is woven by hand on old looms in Hungary, the design is by Natalie Pichler from Linz. We like to cooperate with specialists, and the collaboration with the designer takes place here in Almtal. Colleagues from the partner company, furniture designers and other specialists sit at the table.

SD: Sustainable growth plays a key role in your company, and not just metaphorically. How do you deal with it?

RK: We are very concerned about this topic. We deliberately target only the German-speaking market, because this way we can guarantee manageable transport routes. We currently achieve 60 % sales in Germany, 35 % in Austria and 5 % in Switzerland. If we want to become nearly as strong in Germany as we are in Austria, the volume would be 5 – 6 times that. This is not easy, but we are working in this direction. But we are not aiming for excessive growth. Our concept did not develop from a marketing idea, but from the desire to live differently and do business differently.

We don’t want to spend our lives manufacturing products that we know are harmful to people and nature. On the contrary, we wanted to create jobs for ourselves and our employees that enable us to live a life in which we feel we are doing something meaningful under beneficial conditions while enjoying our work. Our growth target is five to ten percent per year. At the moment we are at seven. At this size, we have qualified employees and can shape development in such a way that the processes work and quality is maintained.

SD: You come from the mail order business and sell your range exclusively directly. You now operate seven stores in Austria and seven in Germany. In 2018, the Grüne Erde-Welt was opened on an area of 25 hectares. How is it proving to be?

RK: We built the Grüne Erde-Welt to create a place where we can show how our products are created and what they are made of. And where we also want to make our roots in the Almtal valley better known. We soon realized that we could bring in and inspire many people who only knew us from afar. Then, in the meantime, the pandemic threw a spanner in the works.

In the meantime, however, visitor interest has increased again. Here in the Grüne Erde-Welt we can pass on our philosophy. We also see our program of events as an educational mission. It covers almost everything that has to do with architecture, design, crafts and nature. Some of our guided tours and events have nothing to do with our products at all, but relate purely to the nature and habitats that surround the building. We want to make these topics tangible, even if this has nothing to do directly with furniture and mattresses. Ecology is not a marketing tool for us. It’s not about printing a CO2-neutral label somewhere, but about a comprehensive view of life and work in connection with nature. This includes nutrition as well as the question of what our operating sites look like, how we people want to work, and what habitats we provide for our animals and plants.

SD: How is your current growth in area of operating and distribution facilities consistent with your values?

RK: All of these developments are built on our values: Our headquarters are located in the center of Scharnstein. Last year, we acquired a 60,000 m² site on the nearby site of an old scythe forge from the turn of the century, directly on the Alm, where we are planning a Grüne Erde-Campus for our employees. Since we need many specialists, some of whom commute in from far away, we would like to use the realization of the campus as an opportunity to combine living, leisure and work. We are taking our time with the development and have planned the project for 10 to 15 years.

Grüne Erde GmbH
Hauptstraße 9
4644 Scharnstein
Austria

www​.grue​neerde​.com

Sophie Wittmann took over the family business founded in 1879 in Scharnstein, Upper Austria, together with her brothers, Max and Rudi. Since then, the craft business specializing in solid wood with a focus on series production made to measure has been operating under the name Trewit.

In an interview with Design Everyday, Sophie reflects on the role that cooperation with designers plays in the orientation of the company.

Design Everyday: Your company looks back on a long tradition and accordingly has a wide range of expertise in the manufacture of furniture. Under what circumstances do you work with designers?

Sophie Wittmann: There are different backgrounds that lead to cooperation. Sometimes someone comes to us with a design and then it is usually a production-related question as to whether and how the project suits us. Since we process solid wood, the materiality on the one hand and the construction method on the other hand play a decisive role. But since my brothers and I took over the business in 2020, we have been able to better plan collaborations with designers and also approach them proactively. So, we approach design studios and commission specific designs.

DE: Can you describe a specific collaboration in more detail?

SW: The cooperation with the designer Robert Rüf, for example, came about by chance. With the new construction of the Patscherkofelbahn, the architects Innauer Matt agreed with the client at an early stage that the mobile interior design would be specially developed for the building. There have been such constellations time and again in the history of architecture, but in the recent past they have become rare and industrial series products are more likely to be used.

DE: What added value does this holistic approach to design create?

SW: In that case the furniture family extends over many elements; From the bar stool to the table, high table, serving trolley to ski stand, the loose furniture was designed down to the last detail. This perfectionism can be felt in the overall concept. But what makes another interesting aspect is the fact that the interplay of architecture and furniture design is derived from two different handwritings. Robert Rüf is not an architect, but an industrial designer. He was familiar with Innauer Matt‘s design and designed matching furniture, which, however, is stylistically in contrast to the architecture. This creates a certain tension. The furniture embodies an individuality, which nevertheless completes the overall picture.

DE: An approach in which different expertise comes together at an early stage deters some because they fear that the costs and the timeframe will explode. How can you imagine this process at eye level?

SW: Time management is a very essential point because the feedback loops need space. First series should be planned very precisely. For this, templates have to be produced and machine settings have to be adjusted. You have to develop the furniture step by step using prototypes and you cannot go straight into production with a design. We create samples and take seat samples, pulling the process through step by step. We start with a working model, followed by a series of samples before all settings are released for production. The good thing about the project was that, despite the development costs of the design, we stayed below the estimated total costs for the furniture. We not only fell short of the internal budget, but were also able to keep up with series furniture made of this type of wood in an industry comparison. Our experience shows that you can carry out such a project with a quantity of 100 or more, provided the client has the affinity for this approach.

DE: With a view to your business model, can you compare an order of magnitude between the proportion of collections and the proportion of custom-made products?

SW: It‘s hard to express that in percentages because the distribution is changing a lot. We notice that our collections are in increasing demand because they are simply beautifully designed. This segment is very much in development.

DE: How do you organize the cooperation legally and economically?

SW: We prefer license agreements with royalties over a one-off payment, because it is difficult to predict how a product will develop.

DE: You mentioned that you are now actively approaching designers to develop certain projects that are particularly important to you. Do you currently have something special in the pipeline?

SW: Yes, we are extremely excited about a project that we have just started with Vandasye. It is about a rehearsal or orchestral chair for musicians. Another very exciting, functional piece of furniture, for which we are already in the preliminary design phase, is being developed together with the designers from Lucy D and — because the project has a large proportion of upholstery — with an additional partner, Joka. The drafts will follow in early autumn and I am confident that we will see the first prototypes this year.

DE: You have been operating under the name Trewit since 2020. What‘s new about this appearance?

SW: The process of change has been going on for a long time and we are now living it so authentically that we finally had the impression that we only changed the name and the language of the website. Much remains the same in the company; the qualities of the legacy are our breeding ground for the future. At the same time, the name expresses an attitude that we are increasingly exhibiting. This includes the commitment to design and to ecology. We have been committed to solid wood for a long time. That sounds sustainable per se, but there are still a lot of edges that have to be sanded in order to convey the topic convincingly to the outside world. The new website is intended to express more clearly what defines us and who we are.

DE: You now run the company with your two brothers? How are your competencies distributed?

SW: Trewit is derived from the family name Wittmann. But it also refers to the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome, where three paths from different directions cross, creating a special place. We are also very different, not only in character, but also in our careers. Max, my older brother, who is in charge of production, is actually a mechanical engineer. I myself had an economic education and only later developed the desire to join the company. Rudi, my youngest brother, already specialized in wood at the Higher Technical Institute, but then graduated from the Art University in Linz. We combine Max‘s technical background with my economic-communicative orientation and Rudi‘s creative-artistic approach. The craft unites us all.

Trewit
Wittmann GmbH
Mühldorf 4
4644 Scharnstein
Austria

www​.tre​wit​.at

Since 1999 Stefan Ehrlich-Adám (*1964) and his wife Nicole have been running the family company EVVA Sicherheitstechnologie GmbH, which celebrated its centenary in Vienna in 2019. With branches in ten countries and a worldwide sales network, EVVA is one of the leading companies for the manufacture of cylinder locks and locking systems.

With Design Everyday he talks about the effectiveness of design in a product that leaves little room for visible design.

Design Everyday: Locking systems are a long-standing technology that is used every day, but which is also constantly changing. What does this dynamic mean for your company?

Stefan Ehrlich-Adám: EVVA is a company that comes from the classic world of mechanics, that has felt at home in this world for many decades and that is continuously developing the world of mechanical locks. Up until about 30 years ago, the majority of locking cylinder technology was based on a patent from 1865. In the last twenty years, however, new mechanisms of action have been invented and, on the other hand, the advent of electronics has changed the industry significantly. It is our concern, on the one hand, to develop highly secure, high-quality cylinder locks that should also offer a certain level of convenience.

DE: What role does design play in the development of locking systems?

SEA: Design has always been an important factor. The old, relatively large padlocks represented attributes such as large, powerful, heavy. However, modern developments are moving in the direction of miniaturization, whereby the space for the mechanism of action in a cylinder is relatively limited. The big challenge is to incorporate as much useful technology as possible in the smallest possible volume. This makes the space for design elements smaller. What remains for the design is the medium, be it a key, a chip card, a code carrier or a combination of these elements.

DE: Can you explain where the designers come into play in such a technologically complex product?

SEA: In the world of mechanics, patent protection plays a very important role. So that our development investments flow back, we as a manufacturer receive an exclusive manufacturing right for a certain period of time. This means that we either have to regularly equip our systems with new patentable features, or we have to set up a completely new system from a technological point of view. At the beginning of June 2021, we launched a system based on a completely new platform. We worked on it for about three years. In terms of design, the key shape, the bow and the way in which the embossings are arranged were only played with in the last third of the development phase. The shape of the bow suggests the type of use. A reversible key system in which the key can be used in both directions requires a symmetrical bow. A key system in which the key can only be inserted in one direction requires an asymmetrical bow so that one knows intuitively how the key is inserted into the lock. In addition to functional aspects, it is about finding design elements that make the product particularly appealing compared to old systems on the one hand and allow a certain brand recognition on the other.

DE: What is the significance of stylistic trends and zeitgeist?

SEA: There is a time element in design. The key used to be an instrument to open the door, today a key is something special per se. It would be ideal if we came to a place where just laying the key on a table makes a special impression. I find it amazing that design can make a product so appealing that everyone immediately falls in love. The process of how our industrial designer works together with marketing to link the design to a story is exciting.

DE: Are you bringing in external expertise for this process?

SEA: For about ten years we have had a very good cooperation with Georg Wanker, an industrial designer from Graz who has already helped design a number of products. In the past, our chief developer drew ten reids after developing the product, and we worked in a small team to vote which ones to take. Today the process is more professional and holistic. The message of the product is developed together with marketing.

DE: Your new Akura 44 system has strong identities. What‘s behind it?

SEA: It is our first product with strong recognition features, from which we want to generate a product family. Up to now, the rule was that a new key should always look completely different from its predecessor. Today the claim is that there is a recognition feature in terms of design that identifies an EVVA product. This is a first step and I‘m excited to see what the next will be.

DE: What influence do the possibilities of contactless locking systems have on your developments, for which I no longer need a medium, but only an
app on the smartphone to open a door?

SEA: That is not a contradiction. We have already managed to combine the two worlds following the idea of »best of both worlds« by equipping a key with an electronic chip. In the future, the two worlds will interlock earlier in product development and develop a common design language. With our next generation of electronics, design plays an important role right from the start. We know roughly how much space we need for our electronics and we have to think about how we can integrate the systems into the lock cylinder but also into the door fitting. That means it is much more visible and we have more space to use the design language. In the future, design will also be an important factor right from the start, because we want to have a say in the shape of the hardware from the outset, and this also has an early influence on the manufacturing costs.

DE: What do the ever shorter product cycles mean for your industry?

SEA: The maximum duration of patent protection is twenty years. That is why we have to develop a successor product or a new system after 12 to 15 years. This is especially true in the world of mechanics. In the world of electronics, components have a lifespan of around ten years. Due to these shorter cycles, we are forced to carry out redesigns more quickly and to adapt the electronics again and, under certain circumstances, to redesign them easily. Today we are called upon to deal with product development more often than in the past.

DE: Are the findings from the pandemic accelerating this dynamic?

SEA: Today we are dealing with contactless systems even more. They offer more comfort and are therefore trendy. If I can open a cylinder with my cell phone, that‘s useful because you always have the cell phone with you; the key is more likely to be lost than the smartphone. However, in every locking system there is a mechanical link at the end of the chain. Identification and authentication are carried out electronically, which releases the locking mechanism. Therefore, the mechanics in particular must always be designed to be safe and reliable. The proportion of electronics will grow and permeate the systems, but electronics will never completely replace the world of keys.

DE: How do you deal with the competition in global markets?

SEA: We see a big difference between the European point of view and other countries like the USA or Asia. The comfort-driven decentralized systems gain a foothold there faster. If you look at the design, however, you come to the conclusion that many products in Europe would not screw on the door because they do not fit formally. In the USA and Asia, functionality is in the foreground, while in Europe the design standard seems to be higher. That is likely to change, but right now design is playing a much bigger role in Europe.

DE: How do you explain that?

SEA: Europeans have a different approach. In Italy, for example, there are dozens of handle manufacturers who all strive to create a beautiful design. In Germany alone there are large manufacturers who also have a name in the world of architecture. You don‘t find that in America. That‘s the nice thing about Europe, that we want to score with the appearance. It‘s not just about the functional, you want to deal with things that you are happy about every day when you see them.

DE: You are, among other things, chairman of the Industry division of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Vienna Presidium of the Federation of Industrialists. What relevance does design have for industry?

SEA: It‘s hard to say because there is no cross-industry approach here. In some industries it plays a subordinate role, in mechanical engineering functionality and technology are in the foreground. It makes a difference wether it is an everyday product that tens of thousands of people come into contact with every day or a machine that is operated by very few specialists and that nobody sees. Design is a supporting element. It can go in the wrong direction if the technical quality of a product takes a back seat due to an unappealing design. That‘s not supposed to be the case, but design has the potential to increase the sales value of a product.

EVVA Sicherheitstechnologie GmbH
Wienerbergstraße 59 – 65
Postfach 77
1120 Vienna
Austria

www​.evva​.com