Audi 2006 Annual Report Download - page 34

The tableware specialists
BHS tabletop Group, Selb, Upper Franconia
World market leader for professional porcelain
Annual revenue: EUR 92.1 million
Employees worldwide: 1,257
Year founded: 1998
Meals are served on BHS
porcelain everywhere
from the exclusive Tantris
restaurant (top) to high
above the clouds.
PHOTOS: LUFTHANSA, TANTRIS
32 AUDI 2006 ANNUAL REPORT
200 million people eat from its
plates every day. Its porcelain is
used in Caesar’s Palace in Las
Vegas, in the Westin Kuala Lumpur and
in Brenner’s Park Hotel. At a time of
dwindling private sales, BHS tabletop
AG has succeeded in supplying porce-
lain for the professionals, and is now
world market leader in its domain.
Nevertheless, the CEO sees himself as
more than a mere purveyor of china-
ware. “What we sell is not really plates
and cups,” says Hans G. Beckmann. “We
sell solutions to a problem.”
The age of white gold seemed over
when this manager reputed for turning
round ailing businesses arrived in Up-
per Franconia. For all its rich tradition,
the German porcelain industry was be-
ing squeezed out of the market in 1993:
demand for best dinner services for do-
mestic use was falling; cheap imitations
were flooding the market. After two
years of modest success with the exist-
ing structure, the new CEO of the former
Hutschenreuther AG opted for radical
change. Beckmann sold off domestic
business, the pride and joy of the com-
pany, and disposed of the biggest
source of earnings, the clay pits. He
then persuaded the company’s three
brands to focus on a long-established
area that was previously no more than a
market niche: the production of china-
ware for the deluxe hotel and catering
trade. “We had the chutzpah to do
something that nobody associated us
with, but that we were eminently quali-
fied to do.”
The three brands that Beckman com-
bined into BHS tabletop AG have a total
of 350 years’ experience in manufactur-
ing porcelain. As producers using top-
quality materials who have always sought
to unite profitable volume production
with unique, handcrafted goods, they
are well equipped to meet the complex
requirements of professionals. Top inter-
national hotels and restaurants, airlines
and shipping lines today order their
chinaware from Bauscher, Hutschen-
reuther Hotel and Schönwald (BHS). As
do canteens and hospitals. As Beck-
mann knows, all of these customers are
looking for much more than just plates
and cups. “We see establishments like
the Burj Al Arab in Dubai and the Tantris
in Munich as cultural platforms,” states
Beckmann. They define trends in many
areas, porcelain included. The BHS ap-
proach involves allowing the interior de-
signer, the manager or the manager’s
wife – or whoever else makes the deci-
sions – to help design the tableware
using the company’s own software. The
result: small-scale designs that are
guaranteed to be unique. For other
customers, the company focuses on
functionality and maximum flexibility of
supply. “Lufthansa needs our chinaware
to be unbreakable and space-efficient.
For canteens, we develop plates with
built-in microchips that facilitate pay-
ing. We can dispatch replacement items
required by the AIDA cruise liner to any
port. And if the Bayerischer Hof hotel
needs 5,000 plates with its own logo in
two days’ time, it will get them.”