08. March 2011
The building blocks sold in barrels have made the company Heros famous
around the world.
At the peak of the Great Arber, two radar stations sit enthroned, the slopes are bustling with skiers and snowboarders. The dense woods, a lush green in summer, are dusted with snow. The Bavarian Forest is known for its trees, which used to stand so closely together that people didn’t settle here until after the year 1000. Today, nature is returning: lynxes creep once more through the dense thicket and there are even bears in the Bavarian Forest National Park.
Heros has stood for high-quality wooden toys for four generations.
From the highest mountain in the Bavarian Forest, the road winds down to Lam. Here there are dreamy hotels, a church with an onion dome and, in the neighbouring village, a glass artist and a small brewery. Since December 1, 2010, Simba Dickie Group has pitched its tent directly at the entrance to the village of Lam: it has taken over Heros, which has been making wooden toys here for more than 100 years.
Made with love – and lots of handiwork.
Heros, derived from the name of company founder Hermann Rossberg, was one of the biggest employers in eastern Bavaria for decades. The barrels of wooden building blocks are well known across all borders, and children around the world test their dexterity using Constructor vehicles. In 2007, Heros took toy blocks manufacturer Lorenz, from the neighboring town of Bad Kötzting, under its wing. But by March last year, the idyll was over – the traditional company filed for insolvency. With Heros, the Simba Dickie Group now has a second producer of wooden toys in its portfolio alongside Eichhorn. The production site in Lam will remain in operation and most of the employees, including many home workers, will be kept on. Administration, distribution and logistics will take place at the Simba Dickie Group’s company headquarters in Fürth and the logistics center in Sonneberg.
Heros only uses paints that comply with strict guidelines.
Manufacturing wooden toys is precision work. This saw works like a carousel: several sticks are fed into it continuously and cut to the desired length one after the other. Heros is not the first toy manufacturer that the Simba Dickie Group has rescued. But in the Bavarian Forest, the takeover has a different meaning entirely. For years, the region was considered economically underdeveloped; today, tourism, among other things, has ensured that the district of Cham, to which Lam belongs, is thriving with the lowest unemployment figures since the seventies. In Lam, the Simba Dickie Group is contributing to a new chapter in the Heros success story – and tradition lives on.
CFO Manfred Duschl, CEO Michael Sieber and Dirk Panaye (from left), directors of the newly founded Heros GmbH & Co. KG, are looking positively into the future.
