02/2021 – WINZKI celebrates its 10th company anniversary

Hörbert Manufacturer WINZKI Celebrates 10th Anniversary

(Frickenhausen, 15.02.2021) Founded in February 2011, 2021 is a very special year for the company Winzki from Frickenhausen. This year, the company celebrates its 10th anniversary.

From the Idea of a Swabian Tinkerer to the Test Winner of Stiftung Warentest

Within a decade, the company founded by and invented by Rainer Brang grew from a one-man operation to a small company with 21 employees and customers in 10 countries. The latest highlight was celebrated by Winzki with the product Hörbert, a sustainable wooden MP3 player for children, which was crowned the sole test winner with an overall score of 1.8 in issue 11/2019 of Stiftung Warentest among 13 other audio devices for children.

How It All Began

The family father was annoyed by his son’s short-lived plastic toys. The result: the birth of the first Hörbert, the world’s first audio player made of wood specifically with child-friendly, intuitive operation through nine colorful selection buttons. 12 years have passed since the software developer came up with the overall concept and developed the electronics for it. For this, he crafted a wooden box, milled holes for the speakers, buttons, and keys, and assembled everything with a handle and a self-made circuit board. The trick: The selection of playlists via nine colorful buttons is unique and intuitive to use. Children can operate Hörbert independently without adult assistance. This means more autonomy for the little ones and their parents. The specially developed software for filling the buttons serves to easily load the player with one’s own audio content. Completely independent of any licensing models.
In 2011, Brang went all in. He invested 50,000 euros out of his own pocket, founded the company Winzki, and began series production of the music player.

Winzki Collects Awards

The innovative invention Hörbert and the company, which manufactures the wooden player entirely in Germany, was crowned with success when WINZKI was awarded as the Founder’s Champion of Baden-Württemberg in the KfW Company Competition in 2016.
2018 saw the nomination as part of the TOP 20 for the State Prize for Young Companies, a competition by Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. In 2019, Winzki celebrated a remarkable victory with Hörbert, when the music player was crowned Test Winner of Stiftung Warentest in terms of quality and safety by a wide margin.

Winzki’s Contribution in Corona Times

After the start of the Corona pandemic, Winzki supported the local maker scene in the production of face shields. According to Brang, some surprises are planned in the anniversary year for loyal fans and new customers alike.

About Winzki GmbH & Co. KG
Founded as a one-man operation on 09.02.2011 and registered in the commercial register on 15.02.2011, Winzki now has 21 employees in Frickenhausen, working on 1500 square meters in a form of self-organization. Each player is assembled locally by hand, with development and shipping also taking place directly in Frickenhausen. The company achieved a revenue of 1.6 million euros in 2020.