The generation change has to wait for Käthe Wohlfahrt

Where the company still has booths open, fewer visitors come and additional staff is required for 2G admission control. Queues form regularly in front of the Christmas houses. “Understandably, many don’t feel like standing in line in the cold,” says Wohlfahrt. This leads to a drop in sales of 20 to 50 percent.

Billionaire business Christmas market

The entire industry is like Käthe Wohlfahrt. The nationwide around 3,000 Christmas markets are an important economic factor. The German Schaustellerbund determined that around 2.88 billion euros are normally spent there.

In Bavaria, Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg and Thuringia, Christmas markets were banned shortly before the opening. Elsewhere only those who have recovered or have been vaccinated are allowed to buy mulled wine and bratwurst. In large parts of Lower Saxony, visitors also need a corona test. Compared to 2019, the stand operators only generate an average of 15 to 20 percent of sales there, said the Lower Saxony Showman Association.

“The situation is precarious to catastrophic,” said chairman Kevin Kratzsch. “Our family businesses have been banned from working for almost two years now and financially at the end”, stated Albert Ritter, President of the German Schaustellerbund. Because many popular festivals were canceled, everyone was hoping for a profitable Christmas business.

Instead, the companies are now hoping for sufficient aid from the state. “Unlike in 2020, when the markets were canceled well in advance, we have high costs for setting up and dismantling,” explains Harald Wohlfahrt. In addition, there are double transport costs for unsold goods that have to be stored. “That is a lot of work well into February. That is why we cannot send employees on short-time work. “

Survived insolvency due to Corona

The repeated cancellation of many Christmas markets hits Käthe Wohlfahrt hard. Because the family business has only just survived a bankruptcy. Three days before Christmas Eve 2020, the world-famous retailer and manufacturer of Christmas decorations had to file for bankruptcy in the protective shield proceedings. Due to lockdown and the absence of tourists, sales had slumped by up to 80 percent. The online shop was unable to close these gaps. “We live from shopping experience,” says Wohlfahrt.

The renovation was successful in March of this year, and 260 of 280 jobs were saved. Six of 22 year-round Christmas shops had to close. The locations in Great Britain, Spain, France, Belgium and the USA will remain.

Actually, Harald Wohlfahrt wanted to hand over the management to the third generation last Christmas. But the corona crisis thwarted the bill. “After all, I want to hand the company over to my children in an orderly fashion,” says the 67-year-old.

The three siblings already work in the company. Son Takuma is to take over from him at the helm. The 29-year-old previously worked for a large PR agency in Munich and is now in charge of marketing and communication. His sister Aska, 33, who worked at Amazon, is in charge of purchasing. Brother Kenta, 32, a wholesale and foreign trade specialist with experience in wood technology, is responsible for the in-house development of Christmas decorations.

“We had imagined joining the family business to be more relaxed,” admits Takuma Wohlfahrt. “Because of the Oberammergau Passion Play, we were set for a boom year, a year of crisis came.” The pandemic and surviving bankruptcy was “a tough but instructive school” for him.

“So far, Käthe Wohlfahrt has been a very healthy company with a well-functioning business model,” emphasizes Harald Wohlfahrt. His parents, Käthe and Wilhelm, once fled the Ore Mountains to the west. They noticed that US soldiers loved hand-carved Christmas art and had been selling them in bazaars year-round since 1964. In 1977 they opened the first shop in Rothenburg, Franconia.

“The Wohlfahrt family had the courage to stage Christmas all year round. It has a unique selling point, ”says Jochen Rothauge, Retail Director of the Meissen Manufactory.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from the USA, Japan or China normally make a pilgrimage to the Christmas Village and Christmas Museum in Rothenburg every year. Käthe Wohlfahrt exported German Christmas culture all over the world. Welfare’s Japanese wife Fumiko also helped.

German Christmas exporter

At Christmas markets in Switzerland, Italy, the USA and Japan, business for Käthe Wohlfahrt is in some cases better this year than in 2019 despite the pandemic. The year-round Christmas shops, on the other hand, recorded a drop in sales of 60 percent up to and including September. Entrepreneur Wohlfahrt is silent about sales. “Bridging Aid III helped us over the summer,” he says simply.

However, the mixed operation of stationary shops and seasonal stands did not receive November and December assistance in 2020. “Otherwise we could have safely avoided bankruptcy,” said Wohlfahrt.

Now he hopes that not only all costs for the short-term cancellation of the Christmas markets will be reimbursed by the state, but also the loss of sales. Because the Christmas business is the financial bridge well into the New Year.

In the event of a drop in sales of at least 30 percent compared to 2019, bridging aid usually reimburses the ongoing fixed costs. Christmas market feeders with a drop in sales of at least 50 percent should also receive 50 percent of the fixed cost reimbursement as an equity grant. An important help for the Wohlfahrt family, but only a drop in the ocean in view of the deep crisis.

Nevertheless, the family does not want to give up what they have built for half a century. “We want to keep companies and jobs,” emphasize Takuma and Harald Wohlfahrt. They hope that foreign tourists will come back in 2022 to experience the German Christmas tradition.

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