Once again the traditional model builder Graupner is on the brink of extinction. The South Korean parent company no longer supplies the company.

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For the employees of Graupner/SJ GmbH in Kirchheim unter Teck, it might be a bad news during the Christmas season. The South Korean parent company has decided that the company in Germany will no longer be part of the manufacturing and distribution chain of the manufacturer of remote control components and RC electronics. Therefore the German model building veteran has again filed for bankruptcy. The company no longer receives any products or support. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the know-how and trademark rights have been held by the parent company in South Korea since the first insolvency. Managing Director Hannes Runknagel: “The rights to use the Graupner brand were sold to the South Korean parent company in the course of the insolvency in 2013 and only made available to the German sales company under a license. Supply by the parent company has also been discontinued for some time. As a result, the company’s current orientation and dependence on the parent company have largely deprived it of its business basis.”

Graupner has already started selling its product range

In order to have planning security for all parties involved, the company filed an application for insolvency proceedings due to imminent insolvency. The sale of the product range has already begun. Stuttgart lawyer Holger Blümle of Schultze & Braun has been appointed provisional insolvency administrator. He will continue business operations even after the insolvency application has been filed. Blümle: “This marks the end of an era in German model making and trading of components, at least under the Graupner label. The company still has an extensive stock of goods, components and spare parts with many rarities and special accessories. It is possible to continue financing the company for the time being by selling off the stocked goods. We will use this time to examine ways of securing the extensive know-how of the 40-member workforce, particularly in the sales area, and transferring it to other goods or business areas.”

South Korean parent company wants to manufacture some products itself

Today’s Graupner/SJ GmbH is a successor company of the model making manufacturer Johannes Graupner founded in Stuttgart in the 1930s. For decades, Graupner has shaped the market for model making as a traditional brand. “Model making lacks the next generation, the market is unfortunately shrinking all the time,” says insolvency administrator Blümle. The Graupner products were manufactured in China. The company announced that the market situation, which had been extremely tense for some time, as well as the steady loss and insolvency of many global OEM/ODM customers had made it unprofitable to continue the production operations in Shenzen. In the future, the South Korean parent company intends to take over the development and production of some successful core products itself. These will primarily be products from the remote control segment under the Graupner HoTT market as well as products for charging technology, servos and other remote controlled electronics.

 

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Link: The parent company withdrew the basis for business operations from the traditional Graupner brand.

Image: Graupner GmbH

//KH