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The End of an Era
1. Sole Agents Since 1994, RA Marketing international has been Fürstenberg's sole agent in the UK. When we took over the exclusive agency, the brand only enjoyed limited consumer awareness and was only available in a few outlets, often covered in dust and not well presented. We were able to change this quickly for the benefit of the brand, and to rapidly grow sales with our hands-on approach. Existing and mainly new clients enjoyed our excellent service and good profits from the Fürstenberg range. 2. Ups and Downs of Sales Amongst others, we gained listings for selected tableware ranges in all major department stores in London. However, due to store policy, change of consumer tastes and discontinuation of some successful lines, the hard-fought for businesses all slipped away again. To some extent we were able to replace lost business with new retailers who had some success with the hand-made products from Germany. For the local market, the colourful Jazz range, based on a 1950s shape, was most successful. However, when this range and the shape Fox were discontinued, a huge chunk of Fürstenberg sales in the UK had been taken out. The remainder of existing and new ranges did sadly not find sufficient interest with local consumers. 3. Our Customers During all this time, we never forgot Fürstenberg's loyal stockists, whether new or long-standing. Many of them will remain close to our hearts. Some of our clients have told us how they had enjoyed dealing through us with Fürstenberg. 4. Website Early on, we developed and continued to maintain a website for Fürstenberg UK. Until its withdrawal today it had consistently been the most comprehensive Fürstenberg website worldwide, featuring all their items (tableware, giftware and figures). Besides, the site contained much valuable background information and many images. It had been attracting not only visitors from the UK but also from abroad, notably the US. 5. Signs of the End Although we took the UK business of Fürstenberg to new heights with peaks in 1998, 2001 and 2004, business started to suffer since then due to the reasons explained above. Furthermore, Fürstenberg's new line "Sieger by Fürstenberg" was single-handedly excluded from our co-operation at its launch, and we had recently been asked to relinquish our profitable and growing B2B customers. Therefore, it did not come as a huge surprise for
us when we received a letter from Fürstenberg out of the blue -
without prior notice. We have accepted their termination of our co-operation
with effect from 30 June 2008.
If you desire to approach Fürstenberg in Germany for any reason, please contact them directly: www.Fuerstenberg-Porzellan.com. We would like to thank our clients and customers for their support and loyalty during the past 14+ years. It was a pleasure meeting many of you and we wish you a prosperous future. 1 July 2008 |
