About Schönbuch

The Company

Schönbuch – because the first impression counts

The hall, the lobby, the entrance area – and the coat rack or coat stand. It’s difficult to find a generic term for this item of furniture, although it’s so important and often governs our first, lasting impression of a private dwelling or a public building. Not only the Germans treat this aspect of their house or office furnishing in a rather half-hearted way. It’s rare for shoes, bags, umbrellas and coats to be accommodated neatly and for guests to be offered an attractive welcome as they arrive.

In every house or apartment, the entrance area has a different size and shape. There are no standardised dimensions, which makes it difficult to choose from what the furniture trade has to offer. The necessary items of furniture often fail to match their surroundings successfully and satisfy users’ requirements. Yet these are soon formulated: ‘Maximum function, minimum furniture’. The designer’s scope is limited, sometimes to little more than inspired improvisation.

The resulting assortment of ‘cloakroom furniture’ – or items forced to perform this role – is seldom capable of living up to our expectations.

It cam be done…

When there’s an evident need, it’s time to take action. Schönbuch – the classic ‘niche supplier’ – shows how to tackle the job properly. With well-planned solutions for the single-room apartment, the detached house and the contract furnishing project. Its programme satisfies the needs of vastly different target groups. Its governing principles are design, high-quality workmanship and function; they are applied equally to major furnishing schemes, to standalone items and to a broad range of practical accessories

…forwards!

In 2004, Schönbuch launched a design offensive under the motto “Standing still is a backward step”, and enlisted the services of young, talented designers such as Stefan Diez, Jehs and Laub and Olze and Wilkens, together with well-established colleagues such as Dante Bonuccelli and Carsten Gollnick. The results that Schönbuch was able to present at the 2005 Cologne Furniture Fair were sensational. The ‘Upon’ coat stand by Stefan Diez Products took the Innovation Interior Award and was nominated for the 2007 Federal German Design Prize. Media, trade and end-users were equally positive in their response to these new products.

This strategy of innovation is to continue in 2007. Why? Because good design and function are essential if human beings, their furniture and their surroundings are to co-exist in a harmonious partnership.

Schönbuch – how tradition grows

Establishment and reliable management

Schönbuch is one of those companies with a progressive attitude which, forty years after it was first established, we can clearly define as ‘tradition’. The company name comes from a forest area in South Germany, between Böblingen and Stuttgart. From the start, Schönbuch occupied a market niche as a supplier of coat stands and entrance hall furniture. The light, clearly drawn outlines of its standalone and built-in designs were in the spirit of the 1960s and the decade that followed. The products were adapted to suit specific architectural and entrance-area features.
Production was outsourced in the 1980s, and work concentrated on development of the product portfolio and sales. Thanks to this business policy, Schönbuch has steadily matured into a brand with unique characteristics in the international furniture trade.

Acquisition and a new beginning

In 2004, after four decades of successful activity, Schönbuch was sold to a worthy successor: Michael Ress, co-owner of Ress Möbelwerkstätten, a furniture production company that has supplied its products to Schönbuch for many years.
The new, young proprietor has reorganised the product range with vigour, expertise, market knowledge and production experience, and aligned Schönbuch’s design and communication policies in accordance with inter-national demand. With a new logo, fresh sales literature and public relations work aimed at the end-user, Schönbuch has now entered a new era.

Product and brand promotion

Good design is not all that’s needed to make a good product. Production methods and workmanship have to follow suit before a product can justify the initial praise it has received and become one of the ‘greats’. Schönbuch works with manufacturers who are never afraid to experiment with unusual materials and who don’t rest until all the technical problems have been solved. Then, and only then, can a product claim to be not only attractive in every detail, but also attuned to end-users’ needs.

In close cooperation with leading business associates, Schönbuch combines the work of skilled carpenters and joiners with industrial manufacturing methods.

The keyword is “mass customisation”, meaning that with these highly competent partners, customers can be sure that even unusual wishes will be satisfied rapidly and to the highest quality standards

The borders are open

Our clients in Austria and Germany value top-quality workmanship, a big range of colours and superbly smooth finishes. Those from Switzerland enthuse about our products’ straightforward but highly effective design, with no superfluous detail and equally attractive in any of the available colours. The Russians, in turn, are impressed by the sheer luxury, opulence and high gloss we can offer. In Belgium and the Netherlands, smaller items and accessories of playful design are in strong demand. The Americans, on the other hand, are enthusiastic about our contract furniture designs.

For Schönbuch, sales are more than travelling the world and displaying samples to prospective customers. Schönbuch identifies national preferences and supplies a suitable selection of products; business associates appreciate its efficient service and the ability to cater for their clients’ specific wishes. Feedback from all around the world is passed on to designers and manufacturers as useful input for the development and production of new items in our programme.