Brandstätter Group is a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 company, headquartered in Zirndorf

Zirndorf

Zirndorf is a town, which is part of the district of Fürth. It is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the Regierungsbezirk of Middle Franconia.-Neighbouring municipalities:...

, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. The group is composed of toy company Playmobil

Playmobil

Playmobil is a line of toys produced by the Brandstätter Group , headquartered in Zirndorf, Germany.New products and product lines developed by a 50-strong development team are frequently introduced by Brandstätter. Some of these, such as promotional products, are only produced in limited quantities...

, Playmobil 1.2.3 Ltd, Inmold Ltd, Hob Electronics Ltd, Hob Components Ltd, HOB Inc., HOB GmbH & Co KG

HOB GmbH & Co KG

HOB GmbH & Co KG is part of the Brandstätter Group, which also owns Playmobil and other companies. HOB GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1964 as an electronics concern, by Horst Brandstätter. The name HOB is an acronym formed from his name. HOB began developing software and terminals for IBM Mainframe...

, and Hob Software Ltd.

In 1876, the company was founded by Andreas Brandstätter

Andreas Brandstätter

Andreas Brandstätter was a German diplomat. He was born in Kiel in 1959. At the age of 21 he became a United Nations worker. After working in Kiel for a long period, in 1985 he went to live in Geneva. He traveled to many countries like Senegal, Sudan, and Libya. When he got to Libya he married a...

 in Fürth

Fürth

The city of Fürth is located in northern Bavaria, Germany in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is now contiguous with the larger city of Nuremberg, the centres of the two cities being only 7 km apart....

, Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

 and produced ornamental fittings and locks. By 1921, the company mainly was producing metal toys such as piggy bank

Piggy bank

Piggy bank is the traditional name of a coin accumulation and storage receptacle; it is most often, but not exclusively, used by children. The piggy bank is known to collectors as a "still bank" as opposed to the "mechanical banks" popular in the early 20th century. These items are also often used...

s, telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

s, cash register

Cash register

A cash register or till is a mechanical or electronic device for calculating and recording sales transactions, and an attached cash drawer for storing cash...

s, and scales

Weighing scale

A weighing scale is a measuring instrument for determining the weight or mass of an object. A spring scale measures weight by the distance a spring deflects under its load...

.

In 1954, production shifted to plastic

Plastic

A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...

s and in the following years produced toys such as the Multi-Worker play-set.http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ludoplaymo/historique.htm The Playmobil line of products was introduced in 1970 under Horst Brandstätter

Horst Brandstätter

Horst Brandstätter is the owner of the German company Brandstätter Group. The company was founded by Andreas Brandstätter in 1876....

 and marketed worldwide in 1975.

The Brandstätter Group produces exclusively in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, chiefly at its main factory in Dietenhofen, 25 km from Zirndorf, with a workforce of 750 people. Although Playmobil also has factories in Malta (700 employees), Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and the Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, Horst Brandstätter expanded production in Germany, and invested heavily in the Dietenhofen factory.

External links

• Playmobil