Editor's Note
This editor’s note highlights the key facts and market implications behind “Richard Schmeer GmbH Celebrates 125th Anniversar”, with emphasis on sourcing, product fit, fabrication, logistics, or buyer impact.
Malstatt. Patrick Fleissner's great-great-grandfather founded Richard Schmeer GmbH. Now the wholesale business for sanitary and heating products celebrates its 125th anniversary. Patrick Fleissner left his career as a police commissioner and now manages Richard Schmeer GmbH in Malstatt.
Richard Schmeer GmbH in Malstatt is celebrating its 125th anniversary, and its founding is owed to sewer construction in the state capital. "It was my great-great-grandfather who, as an accountant at Halberger Hütte in 1897, was asked by his boss if he didn't want to start his own business. At that time, the expansion of the sewer network in Saarbrücken began; Halberger Hütte supplied the pipes to the city. But there was no intermediary. One was needed,"
says Patrick Fleissner, Managing Director of Richard Schmeer GmbH. And so Richard Schmeer rented a meadow plot at the corner of Rosenstraße and Mainzer Straße and stored his pipes there.
“Where his office was back then, we don’t even know today, because it was only later that the first company headquarters was established at Mainzer Straße 46,”
the great-great-grandson recounts the story of the company's founding. It was courageous to leave the secure permanent position in the flourishing iron and steel industry. But ultimately, that was the cradle of a medium-sized company that today distributes heating and sanitary products in wholesale and retail in the Wiesenstraße industrial area and currently employs 30 people.
The company has experienced the ups and downs of Saarland history in full measure. The 1929 economic crisis led to the company only making losses between 1931 and 1934; during World War II, the entire company was evacuated twice to St. Wendel. During the period of French administration, it was cut off from German customers and lost many employees. "But even all these difficult times could be overcome through cohesion within the company,"
says the young boss. The 38-year-old from Bübingen only took over the company management in the fifth generation in 2020. Previously, he was a police commissioner, working at stations in Sulzbach, Brebach, and on patrol duty in Karcherstraße. Then the business succession was due; the policeman started a business administration degree, training within his own company, and switched from the secure civil service job to the boss's chair.
A parallel in history, if you will. Only today the company no longer consists of a fenced meadow plot but is firmly established and maintains a large warehouse, an administration, and a bathroom exhibition in Rotfeld. Today, they no longer sell sewer pipes; they have focused on sanitary and heating products and are proud of a broad inventory. "We also have parts in stock that aren't needed often. But the tradespeople appreciate that. We can deliver and proactively purchase a lot in advance,"
says Fleissner, standing next to a heat pump. Especially in the heating sector, many systems are being converted, and delivery times for systems are sometimes months long. But even here, they usually find good solutions thanks to the company's long-standing industry contacts.
In competition, they stand against the DIY stores, whose density is particularly high in Saarland. But they can hold their own because they are well-stocked and the consultants at Schmeer have great experience. "We score with offers that simply aren't available in the DIY store,"
says the medium-sized entrepreneur, looking optimistically ahead. The necessary conversion of thousands of heating systems makes the industry crisis-proof. Only the number of installers is tight, which his customers repeatedly report to him.
Source: Read the original article | Published: May 29, 2022