One sees the most noticeable change at the Fare headquarters as soon as one turns into the drive of the company’s premises: The spacious new building of the umbrella specialist stands out immediately. However, beyond the glamorous new façade a lot of other things have taken place at Fare since its 60th anniversary in the year 2015: A training programme, investments in digital tools, dozens of product innovations and a lot of efforts in the fields of sustainability and product quality are making Fare fit for the future.
A prestigious project, a milestone in the company’s history and a major investment in a hopefully rainy and successful future: In July 2019, the new building of the umbrella specialists, Fare, was officially inaugurated at the company’s head office in Remscheid. On entering the impressive building, the Fare logo immediately catches the eye and the product highlights arranged in a display leave no doubt about what Fare creates under this new roof. The company from Remscheid has put great attention to detail into the building that spans 1,000 m² and which is as equally design and future oriented as the firm’s umbrella models. An open foyer, high ceilings and stylish, minimalist furnishing characterise the structure. Bright colours meet clear contours, lightened up by playful details – such as for instance the grooves in the façade being mirrored in the interior of the foyer. The main objective and major difficulty regarding the construction process was to unite the existing two buildings from 2001 and 2009 in one homogenous structure. The aim behind uniting the whole is to simplify the internal processes and the communication between the respective teams. Seven newly created offices provide space for 16 new employees.
Furthermore, so that the infrastructure continues to work optimally, a new drive for trucks and an additional employee parking lot with 27 parking spaces have been built. The continual growth over the past years had made a spatial expansion urgently necessary. Overall, the Fare team has expanded from comprising of around 40 employees in 2015 up to the current headcount of 60 people. And that is by no means the only thing that has occurred over the last five years. For example, in spite of the construction phase, many major projects were executed. “Because the demands in the products have increased significantly, we have among others established a comprehensive quality management system – a very time and labour-intensive process,” confirmed Volker Griesel, CEO of Fare. The authorised signatory and Sales Director, Günter Schmidt, added: “We are observing a clear trend towards a greater awareness for quality among the users. Brands want to accentuate their value with equally high-quality messengers and are implementing more and more sustainably produced umbrellas.”
Committed to quality
Volker Griesel, Andreas Schumann and Günter Schmidt (f.t.l.) in front of one of the themed worlds for umbrella collections and special designs in the new showroom.
The manufacturing of the umbrella models designed in Remscheid is carried out by partner companies in China, which have in some cases been working for Fare for decades. Since the umbrellas are elaborately assembled by hand from over 100 parts depending on the model and the factories work together with many different upstream suppliers, the seamless supply chain management proves to be a big challenge. The production sites are audited regularly – on the one hand by external testing institutes and on the other hand by Fare employees on-site. As a member of the JCK Holding, which the promotional products suppliers Daiber, Halfar, Karlowsky, mbw and SND also belong to, Fare benefits from the JCK office in China and can furthermore have the materials used for the production process chemically analysed in the independently accredited laboratory, Labtech. All production sites for the manufacture of umbrellas are audited in compliance with the demands of the amfori BSCI and dispose of a valid audit result – according to Griesel, an achievement that not every company in the promotional products industry can boast about. To also enable the fast, flexible processing of large orders, Fare stocks on average approx. 2 million umbrellas. The individual design i.e. per doming, laser engraving or in the form of the impressive Colormagic colour change method is also carried out by partner companies in the region. Among others a partner company located directly in Remscheid is responsible for screen prints – a very popular customising option. “Our production methods are sustainable, we check countless factors in the background and not least thanks to our outstanding service ensure that the number of repeat orders is very high and that the amount of complaints is extremely low,” stated Schmidt. Beyond the production conditions and the chemical harmlessness of the materials implemented, the product features also play a decisive role. A host of the top models are TÜV-tested with regards to their quality characteristics including wind safety, the resistance to breakage of the frames, user-friendliness and the flexibility of the rib construction.
Fare developed the method in the 1990s together with the technical inspection authority, TÜV, because up until then there were no uniform serviceability tests for umbrellas. “Here we fell back on our extensive umbrella know-how in order to devise testing mechanisms for our continuously expanding range of products and to establish ourselves as brand manufacturers,” Griesel reported. “Our line-up comprises of around 120 different umbrellas,” Griesel summed up. “Every year we design about a dozen novelties that are subsequently elaborately tested – it takes around a year before each product is ready to be launched onto the market,” Andreas Schumann, Marketing Director of the company since 2016, added. “Innovative power and product quality go hand in hand with each other at Fare.”
In the know
Among the new product introductions for 2020, a transparent guest umbrella, a model with an individually fillable handle as well as a pocket umbrella with a brightly varnished shaft particularly stand out. Beyond this the umbrella specialists are demonstrating their know-how with a new waterSave cover material – and at the same time are setting benchmarks in terms of sustainability: The yarn for the new fabric is gained from recycled plastic and it is dyed before being further processed, which saves a considerable amount of water and energy compared to dying processed fabric. In this way, the eco-friendly materials save 60% of CO2 emissions during the production process, 70% in energy consumption and 98% of the sludge output; this production method saves around 6 l of water per umbrella. From 2020 onwards, the material for the cover will be available in black for several top sellers and new products; in future the company plans to implement the waterSave method for all black cover fabrics. To emphasise their creative and equally sustainable attributes, Fare is also treading new paths on the marketing front. “In addition to our Factbook, which lists all product advantages in detail, we compiled the Stylebook for the first time two years ago, which comprising of good 30 pages, provides the promotional products distributors with a compact, attractive marketing instrument, which entices their industry customers to buy more,” Schumann reported.
The online shop was also revamped and the firm has invested heavily in its digital infrastructure – measures which will facilitate cooperating with the company’s trading partners and will make the company fitter for the future from 2020 onwards: Fare is installing a new ERP system to ensure optimum process control. “Of course, the planning and implementation of such a system demands extensive internal resources and naturally specialised knowledge beyond umbrella design,” Griesel confirmed. In order to bundle the required know-how under one roof and promote the sustainable growth of the company, Fare actively recruits skilled labour and recently introduced trainee positions. The new building has proved to be a practical investment in the future in terms of the recruiting process and employee satisfaction, too. “If an employer is not located in a big metropolis, one has to be inventive in today’s era when there is a lack of skilled workers,” Griesel remarked. This is why beyond the representative state-of-the-art showroom and the cutting edge meeting rooms, the new building also accommodates attractive offices and a new cafeteria with a coffee bar and a spacious recreation room with a picturesque view – which is one of the highlights of the building for Volker Griesel: “We had to realise all of the major projects – from the quality management to the ERP system through to the new structuration of our sales – in the midst of a huge building site last year. But when I take a look at the new facilities, there is no doubt about it for me – we are well-aligned for the future.”
// Claudia Pfeifer
Photos: Laura Müller (1), Claudia Pfeifer (1), © WA Media; Fare (2); Antje Schröder (2)
