Selling with feeling

It all started 75 years ago, when Alois Scheurich established a wholesale porcelain and ceramics business. Then in the late fifties the company's founder got into actually producing ceramics as well. Not even the fact that there was neither suitable clay nor qualified employees in the region prevented the company from growing steadily in this new business area. In the sixties the son-in-law of the company's founder, Dr Hubert Baumann, took over management of the business. Under his direction the company worked its way up to the very top of its field. Following Hubert Baumann’s death by accident in 1980, Inge Baumann carried on what was the life's work of both her father and her husband. The third generation has already been at the helm for quite some time: Peter A. Baumann, grandson of the company's founder, has managed the firm for over 15 years now.
The houseplants-and-pots combination is tailored to the space available in each garden centre.
Production is carried out on two locations. At company headquarters in Kleinheubach am Main, Germany, a workforce of 350 uses highly automated production lines to make up to 100 000 items per day. At the subsidiary in Portugal, the focus is on the production of rather craft-style ceramic living and table accessories. The export share now comes to nearly 50 per cent. The products are sold not only in Europe, but in New York, Moscow, Tokyo and Shanghai as well. It appears that their market share is continously increasing, and most recently there was talk of double-digit sales growth.
Scheurich presents up to six new collections a year. In order to track down the right trends, the design team works in cooperation with trend agencies both at home and abroad. This strategy is continued on the sales and marketing side by means of “emotive selling”. Together with visual merchandising specialists, work is constantly going on to further develop and refine emotional POS displays. The objective is to create exciting shelf modules, photo displays and merchandisers that will generate add-on retail sales.
One example is provided by the houseplants-and-pots combination for garden centres, which offers an exciting presentation of ceramic products and plants adapted to the actual space available and designed to encourage spontaneous purchases in both product categories. And without requiring any extra space. The new “Feeling Home Seller” also works on the emotional level. It consists of a natural wood presentation stand to which can be added one or two more tables. It is designed for shop-in-shop systems, and for both large and small spaces.