Winzki wins the 2018 State Award for Young Companies

Hörbert: More than a one-hit wonder. 

Winzki from Frickenhausen succeeds in the state prize for young companies.

According to the latest startup report, 95 percent of startups throw in the towel after a short time. Not so the 375 companies from Baden-Württemberg that participated in the 12th State Prize for Young Companies. Among the top 20 is the company Winzki from Frickenhausen with hörbert, the sustainable design MP3 player for children. Required were innovative ideas, confident concepts, and sustainability. 

Every two years, the state government and the L-Bank award the prize for young companies from Baden-Württemberg. They are looking for companies that are economically successful and contribute to a future-oriented society through responsible action. The total prize money of 90,000 euros and the advertising effect are incentives for 375 participants. These include businesses ranging from ten to 100 employees and industries from crafts to IT.

Rainer Brang, founder of the company Winzki, is one of them. The family father was annoyed by the short-lived plastic toys of his son. The result: the birth of the first Hörbert, a sustainable wooden MP3 player for children. Nine years have passed since the software developer conceived the entire concept and developed the electronics for it. He crafted a wooden box, drilled holes for speakers, buttons, and controls, and assembled everything with a handle and a self-made circuit board.

The player in retro look appeals to friends and relatives. Brang continued to develop hörbert for 14 months until it was ready for series production, bringing it to perfection – typical of a tinkerer. The quality of the materials used is noteworthy. The sound box is made of solid and sustainable beech wood, and the speaker from the traditional company Visaton. Brang also designed the circuit board architecture. The unique feature: selection of playlists via nine colorful buttons is unparalleled and intuitive to use. “Children can operate hörbert independently without adult assistance,” explains creator Brang. This means more autonomy for the kids and their parents. The specially developed software for programming the buttons finally converts transferred titles into a power-saving .wav format. This makes annoying battery or battery changes a rarity. In 2011, Brang went all out. He invested 50,000 euros of his own money, founded the company Winzki, and mass-produced the music player. Revenues have doubled year by year.

20 employees in Frickenhausen now assemble each player by hand on 1,500 square meters, develop new functions, and work on expanding the hörbert family. For example, through special models for people with disabilities. This year alone, the team is producing 10,000 hörberts. Each employee organizes themselves and works independently. The boss only intervenes when his expertise is needed. The result speaks for itself: Winzki aims for 1.5 million euros in sales this year and forecasts an increase of about 30 percent for 2019.

The 20,000 hörberts produced so far from regenerative beech, poplar, and birch bind around 17,500 kg of CO2. This corresponds to the biological footprint of 1.5 Germans through their consumption per year. This includes flying on vacation, buying a new car, or the morning coffee. Additionally, the distances are short: 92 percent of the player’s components come from Germany, a third of them from Baden-Württemberg.

Five years pass, during which Brang transitions from a self-employed individual to an entrepreneur with personal responsibility. “It is essential that founders realize development stages and adapt organizational structures,” he says. An in-house quality management system is central to this. Often, some changes are not noticed in the day-to-day business. To notice these, an outside perspective is necessary.

No matter how closely founders examine their business, unexpected obstacles can quickly overturn business plans. Fees for electronic waste disposal, registration deadlines, or GEMA fees complicate exports. “Good thing I didn’t know that at the time of founding,” Brang smiles.

Now it remains to be seen whether Hörbert will prevail against the other 19 competitors. The decision will be made on November 8 at the New Castle in Stuttgart. The three first-place winners will receive a total of 90,000 euros, presented by Minister President Winfried Kretschmann and the CEO of L-Bank, Axel Nawrath, in a festive setting. www.hoerbert.com/presse