پوشل تاباک با سالها سابقه در تولید توتون در آلمان
مدیریت این شرکت به عهده آقای پاتریک انگلس و دکتر ارنست پوشل میباشد که به صورت خانوادگی اداره می شود.
OVER 112 YEARS OF TOBACCO ENJOYMENT – STORIES FROM FOUR GENERATIONS OF ENTREPRENEURS
“As a medium-sized player among the majors, it is always important to be able to sniff out the right market niches and to conquer them in time-honoured tradition with qualitatively outstanding products.” Under this motto and by virtue of their capabilities and industry all four generations of the Pöschl Family, together with their highly motivated employees, have individually helped to shape the Company, responded promptly to developments and trends among consumers and as a result achieved major success in the domestic and international tobacco markets.
CHRISTMAS EVE 1902 – THE DREAM OF OWNING A TOBACCO FACTORY BECOMES REALITY
The young Alois Pöschl trains as a businessman in Landshut at the turn of the last century. As a salesman Alois Pöschl bicycles throughout Bavaria selling haberdashery and snuff. On the 24th of December, 1902, his idea of owning his own snuff tobacco business becomes a reality, despite a dearth of available financial resources. Together with his partner Max Ebenherr, who incidentally soon left the venture, he establishes the company ’Brasiltabakfabrik A. Pöschl & Cie‘. Given the minimal equipment available at the outset, Pöschl concentrates on the production and sale of ‘Schmalzler-style’ snuff tobacco. Only by dint of perseverance, diligence and striving for top product quality is the small company able to assert itself successfully vis-à-vis the powerful competition of the established snuff manufacturers in Landshut. Even during those early days the guiding principle “Quality is when the customer returns and not the product” was as important as it is today.
STRIKING OCTAGON – THE LAUNCH OF THE PÖSCHL TRADEMARK
Once the production problems due to the First World War have been overcome, Alois Pöschl develops a trademark around 1920 to differentiate the Pöschl Schmalzler-style snuff from those of other manufacturers’ products. From now on the packaging of the proprietary product will include a ‘P’ within an octagon to ensure that the customer is able to identify that the product is indeed from Pöschl. At the same time specialty stores in Bavaria that sell the snuff tobacco receive enamelled red signs advertising the Pöschl product.
THE PATH TO SUCCESS CONTINUES WITH SCHNEELING
Inflation and currency reform in 1923 fail to dampen Alois Pöschl’s entrepreneurial spirit; instead, he daringly expands the product range by adding ‘Schneeling’, a tobacco-free snuff, and a Schmalzler-style snuff with natural fruit notes that remains popular to this day under the brand name ‘Doppelaroma’. Five travelling salesmen are engaged in order to increase sales volumes; initially they travel by bicycle, as the Company founder had done, and later by car to sell the snuff products. This sales strategy generates considerable revenue gains for the company and induces Pöschl to expand his production building.
RAW MATERIALS SCARCITY IN THE POST-WAR PERIOD CALLS FOR A WEALTH OF IDEAS
The two sons Wilhelm and Alois Pöschl Jr. join the Company in 1935. Together with their parents they transform the Company into a general partnership from 1936 on and save it from demise during the confusion and horror of the Second World War. After the end of the war in 1945, however, the raw materials necessary to restart production are practically non-existent. Only by means of deft negotiations with the US and French occupying forces is Alois Pöschl Jr. able to procure the requisite raw materials, such as leaf tobacco, sugar beet molasses and white or rapeseed oil for production. Parts of the Company’s premises were also damaged during bombing raids; Alois Pöschl Jr. succeeds in procuring construction materials for restoration of the buildings only with great finesse. Some of the employees return from the war, but only very gradually, and slowly production begins once again.
ADRIA AND HANSA – HEADING FOR NEW HORIZONS WITH SMOKING TOBACCO
Due to the currency reform of 1948 and a prior rise in tobacco tax no one can afford the consumption of snuff tobacco any longer. Consequently, the Pöschl brothers suffer losses in sales. Wilhelm and Alois Pöschl respond by developing a strategy to improve product differentiation. They create the brand names ‘Doppelaroma’ and ‘Südfrucht’ and add an identifying sign for Pöschl products to the packaging design with the Pöschl-P within the octagon: The ‘snuffing man’ will appear henceforth on packages, snuff tobacco flasks and in advertising. In order to boost sales, the brothers expand the sales force, as did their father, Alois Pöschl Sr. before them. In order to avoid new crises in the tobacco trade, they create a second cornerstone in July of 1949, by including the new product segment of smoking tobacco in their range. Pöschl Tabak shapes the beginning of the smoking tobacco era in Germany with its pipe tobacco ‘Hansa Krüll’ and the blue and red fine-cut tobacco ‘Adria’. The product differentiation and expansion strategy proves successful and not only leads the Company out of the crisis, but generates continuous growth.
PÖSCHL BECOMES THE ‘GERMAN SMOKING TOBACCO MIRACLE’
In the mid-sixties a far-reaching trend towards pipe smoking develops. Pipe smoking, a more affordable alternative to the consumption of cigarettes, is initially popular among students as a reasonably priced and intellectual pleasure. But a number of celebrities, too, enjoy pipe smoking in public and are pictured with pipes in the press; the demand for pipe tobacco and the classic fine-cut tobacco rises. Pöschl responds to this trend with perfect timing and launches the pipe tobacco series ‘Exclusiv’ with an English guardsman’s head in the German market. The Company draws attention to its new product series with advertising campaigns and television commercials. At the same time Wilhelm Pöschl quickly expands the Company’s distribution network throughout Germany. This efficient and rapid response to the pipe smoking trend strengthens sales of smoking tobacco products from Pöschl Tabak, whilerevenues of many competitors are shrinking. Competitors acknowledge the Pöschl brothers’ success by calling the Company the ‘German smoking tobacco miracle’.
THE PEAK OF FRESHNESS
At the beginning of the seventies Wilhelm and Alois Pöschl Jr. develop another promising snuff product, ‘Gletscherprise’, which joins the traditional Bavarian Schmalzler-style snuff tobaccos. With Gletscherprise snuff – featuring refreshing menthol and Columbia oil – the Pöschl brothers find the right taste for the younger generation. Gletscherprise snuff, with a market share of approximately 50% of snuff tobaccos in Germany and annual sales volumes of approx. ۶ million tins/packages has remained one of Pöschl’s most successful snuff products up to the present day. Using the advertising slogan ‘The Peak of Freshness’ the Company also conducted numerous product raffles in which customers could win among other prizes a ride in the Company’s Gletscherprise hot-air balloon.
CONQUERING THE GLOBAL MARKET
Starting in 1980 Dr. Ernst Pöschl (son of Wilhelm Pöschl) and Dr. Robert Engels (son-in-law of Alois Pöschl jr.) take over management of the Company, which since 1975 had changed from a general partnership to a holding and operating company. Now representing the third generation of the family, the two directors concentrate on the expansion of an international sales network in addition to the existing domestic tobacco market. Dr. Engels bears responsibility for all sales issues and corporate affairs , as well as the Company’s overall marketing management, while Dr. Pöschl develops strategies to rationalize work flows and measures to guarantee control over tobacco quality from the cultivation to the finished product. The two directors are able to effectively run the tobacco trade abroad by means of joint strategic decisions and a keen grasp of new markets. In addition to the traditional export destination countries, such as France, Austria, the UK, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, Pöschl Tabak also has customers in countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium, Luxembourg, as well as the Far East and the US. Thus, a great part of the production of smoking and snuff tobacco is exported worldwide. Company branches have been established in the export countries for direct sales support. Pöschl Tabak can avail itself of a global sales network today and now exports to almost 100 countries around the world.
THE PIPE CLUB OF LONDON RECOMMENDS RADFORD’S
Under the leadership of Dr. Engels and Dr. Pöschl, the Company forges an important brand alliance with another manufacturer. A contract is entered into with the ‘Turner’ brand assuring Pöschl sole distribution of the popular rolling tobacco in Germany. This strategic step allows the Company to react successfully to higher demand for fine-cut tobacco. Successful fine-cut brands such as Brookfield, Pontiac, Red Bull and Pueblo – pure tobacco enjoyment without additives – are added over the years. Furthermore, Pöschl Tabak develops the pipe tobacco series ‘Radford’s’ as early as 1978 in order to position itself at a high quality and price level with this product, as it did earlier in the case of the pipe tobacco series ‘Exclusiv’. A quality recommendation from the Pipe Club of London on product packaging contributes to higher levels of product acceptance on the part of consumers. The very successful pipe tobacco series Brookfield and Golden Blend’s are added later.
NEW SPACE IN GEISENHAUSEN FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL IDEAS AND PRODUCTION
In order to meet increasing demand for tobacco products at the beginning of the 1990ies, Dr. Pöschl and Dr. Engels decide to build a new production site at Geisenhausen near Landshut, Germany. Both the construction and move are completed in 1995. The first two management generations of the firm Pöschl Tabak had already set a high value on environmentally friendly production methods to protect nature’s resources. This guiding principle is also applied to construction of the building in Geisenhausen. A highly modernized production working environment is created in accordance with the latest environmental technical standards using construction materials that pose no hazard to man or the environment. Dr. Pöschl and Dr. Engels have been able to develop the Company’s current market position as the leading independent German producer of snuff and smoking tobacco as well as its global market leadership in snuff tobacco. Various initiatives on the part of the Company such as the customer magazine ‘Pöschl Magazin’ or awarding the ‘Gletscherprise Glass Art Prize’ at exhibitions contribute to customer retention and represent only a small part of Pöschl Tabak’s many activities in shaping both domestic and international tobacco trade. The Company also sends promotion teams throughout Germany on a regular basis to draw its customers’ attention to both new and tried and true products such as ‘Red Bull’ and ‘Pueblo’ fine-cut, ‘Gletscherprise’ or ‘Gawith Apricot Snuff’.
ADVENT OF THE 4TH GENERATION
In 2006, Dipl.-Kfm. Patrick Engels became the first representative of the fourth generation to join the Company’s management as Executive Vice President and COO. In March 2009 he was appointed along with Dr. Ernst Pöschl as President & CEO of the Pöschl Tobacco Group. He succeeded his father, Dr. Robert Engels, who died in January ۲۰۰۹ after a grave illness at the early age of 59 years. On January 1st 2012 Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Ing. Katharina Pöschl, daughter of Dr. Ernst Pöschl, joined the company as assitance to the management. In February 2014 she became the second representative of the fourth family generation and took over the business divisions for production, purchasing, technology and human resources from her father.
