Just one month into the new year, Wilkhahn President Jochen Hahne, can be relaxed about the future. Forty-four year old Hahne justified his optimism for 2003 as follows: “We did our homework last year and laid a solid foundation for riding out the crisis in the industry”. The measures taken had already resulted in a 9% increase in turnover in the second half of 2002 compared with the first half year. Jochen Hahne now anticipates further growth impulses due to the market launch of Solis, the new office chair range.

New products
Wilkhahn’s convincing presence at Orgatec 2002 was responsible for an extremely positive sales response and considerable stimulation of demand in the final quarter. At Orgatec, Solis was highly commended by the Innovation Prize of Architektur + Office. In addition, some 800 chairs had already been sold to the showrooms of global sales partners several months before serial production of this new office chair range was scheduled to commence. This was a higher figure than had ever been sold on any product launch before. Hahne went on to say: “This sense of a new era, contrary to the general trend in the industry, meant both an incentive and a commitment for us to get the new range ready for serial production on schedule and without any hold-ups”. The first one thousand or so Solis chairs will be sent out in the next few days. What is more, new ranges for the conference segment will follow this year.

The Solis range (Design: wiege) focuses on clarity, innovative ergonomics and intuitive operation: sitting in pure simplicity.

Efficient flow line production
Wilkhahn has changed into a higher gear not only in product development: Solis, like the Modus and FS-Line office chair families, is being produced in accordance with a new production concept that has been in effect since last summer. Wilkhahn had invested some one million euros in so-called “flow line production”, developed by manufacturing specialist Festool, and adapted to Wilkhahn needs. This involves bringing together all components required for a single office chair before assembly commences. Jochen Hahne is delighted: “The new production concept has substantially enhanced process safety and increased productivity – thus allowing us to launch Solis at a very attractive price-performance ratio”. He would like to see the brand values of design, innovation and quality being applied not only to products, but also to business processes.

Consistent market presence
Differentiation and unequivocalness are key concepts for Wilkhahn to strengthen their positioning in global competition. In line with this, Wilkhahn Forums were opened in Düsseldorf, Rotterdam and Paris last year in the corporate design which is characterized by clarity, a fresh approach and distinct colour branding. Wilkhahn’s internet presence has been designed along these lines too and has already received several awards. Jochen Hahne sums up as follows: “The fact that our website was awarded the Bronze Cyber Lion in Cannes last summer certainly goes to prove that that we are once again at the cutting edge with our brand presence too. By the way, the Wilkhahn Orgatec stand was one of the stands receiving the highest number of visitors. For Jochen Hahne this confirms that not only specialists, but also the market in general appreciates Wilkhahn’s core values. “For many years now, our products have stood for supporting people in a manner that is as simple, as good and as enduring as possible – these are the values which are especially appreciated in difficult times”.

Prize-winning website (agency: Neue Digitale): concise, informative and user-friendly.

The showroom at Head Office is being rebuilt and redesigned to display new products at the moment. In March we intend to invite all staff from German Wilkhahn specialist dealers and to “get them on the right track”. “With design, innovation and quality we want to place consistent focus on the power of design. And on trust and fairness using competence and the ability to create enthusiasm. This is our most important capital for the future.”

Strong brand presence in new corporate design: Wilkhahn stand at Orgatec 2002.

The illustrations are available as high-resolution print data at 'Service', 'Image Database', keywords “Orgatec?Fair” and “Solis”.

For further information, please contact:

Wilkhahn
Wilkening + Hahne GmbH+Co
Press + Public Relations
Fritz-Hahne-Straße 8
31848 Bad Münder
Germany
Phone: ++49 (5042) 999-169
Fax: ++49 (5042) 999-450
burkhard.remmers@wilkhahn.de