Werner & Mertz

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Werner & Mertz GmbH
TypeGmbH
IndustryChemical industry
Founded1867
HeadquartersMainz-Neustadt, Germany
Key people
Reinhard Schneider
Revenue€455 million (2019)[1]
Number of employees
1,050 (worldwide) (2019)
Websitewww.werner-mertz.de

Werner & Mertz GmbH is a medium-sized, family-run manufacturer of cleaning and care agents with headquarters in Mainz. The company emerged from the wax factory “Gebrüder Werner”, which was founded in 1867. Werner & Mertz has sold shoe polish under the brand name  [de] since 1901. Household cleaning agents were added to the portfolio after the Second World War. The highest-selling brand is Frosch, which has offered environmentally friendly detergents since 1986. Company owner Reinhard Schneider was awarded the 2019 in recognition of his services to environmental protection. The company reported revenues of €284 million in 2008,[2] €305 million in 2012 and €340 million in 2015.[3][4]

History[]

Erdal plant in Hallein in the background
The Erdal-Tower

Foundation, company locations and management[]

In 1867, the brothers Friedrich Christoph Werner and Georg Werner founded the company in Mainz as the wax goods factory “Gebrüder Werner”. The factory was given its current name “Werner & Metz” when Georg Mertz joined the company in 1878. Mertz passed away in 1887, whereupon his brother-in-law Philipp Adam Schneider took over company management with the Werner brothers, which remains in the hands of his descendants today.[5]

After Philipp Adam Schneider’s death on 10 August 1901, his son Rudolf took over management of the company at the age of 19. From 1903, he managed the company in tandem with his brother Hermann Schneider.

A devastating fire laid waste to the factory and residential building on Erthalstraße in 1908. The company then moved into the new factory building on Ingelheimer Aue that autumn. After a fire in 1917, production continued at the same location in a newly built factory, which was completed in the summer of 1918. The “” was constructed as part of this new complex and remains the “Erdal” landmark in Mainz to this day. A in 1944 destroyed 80 percent of the company building, but left the Frosch Tower intact. On 3 May 1946, Radio Frankfurt reported that the “world-famous Erdal factory” had resumed production.

The subsidiary factory in Hallein, Austria, started production at the beginning of 1954. Rudolf Schneider stepped down from company management in the same year. Hermann Schneider transferred management of the company to his son Helmut in 1962. In 1996, construction of a modern logistics centre in Mainz with fully automatic high-bay warehouse became the biggest investment in the company’s history. Of Helmut Schneider’s three children, his son Reinhard finally assumed management of the company in 2000, passing the reins to the fifth generation. Company administration moved to an “” on Mainzer Rheinallee in September 2010.[6] The new production centre in Mainz named “L8” was inaugurated in 2019. Costing €30 million, the company is quoted as saying it is the largest single investment in its history.[7]

“Erdal” shoe polish[]

In 1901, the company used its expertise in wax processing to develop an innovative, wax-based shoe polish: the shoe colouring and polishing agents used until then had been based on sulphur, carbon black, syrup, molasses and water and had been harmful to the leather, had difficulty adhering to the shoes and ended up staining the clothes. Werner & Mertz adapted their address on Erthalstraße to market the shoe polish under the brand name “Erdal” and introduced the “Froschkönig” (Frosh King) as the new trademark in 1903.[8]

The company experienced steady growth between 1912 and 1939 by adding new shoe care products, expanding its distribution and logistics and investing in advertising and sales promotion. Erdal was Germany’s highest-selling shoe care product in 1921. The company employed an estimated workforce of around 1,200 at this time. The Berlin-based company was acquired in 1928, adding its successful shoe cleaning product .[9] The workforce expanded to around 1,800 employees in 1939.

Expansion of the product range[]

After the end of the Second World War, and in the 1950s especially, Werner & Mertz expanded its range of household cleaning agents, adding products for bathrooms and carpets in particular. The portfolio was expanded further with the foundation of Tana Chemie GmbH in 1971, a supplier of cleaning agents for large consumers such as restaurants, hospitals, industrial plants and office buildings.[5]

Environmental responsibility[]

In 1986, the company introduced the first phosphate-free household cleaning agent under the brand name “Frosch”.[10] The Erdal shoe care range has been solvent-free since 1996, and emsal products have contained ingredients on a natural basis since 2009.[2] Werner & Mertz also launched the brands Green Care Professional and Tana Professional, which both offer hygiene and cleaning products.[11] Werner & Mertz has used its brand names (besides Frosch, they are Erdal, tana professional, green care professional,[12] Rorax, Emsal and Bionicdry) to adopt a market position of corporate social responsibility.

The owner Reinhard Schneider has driven this development since taking office in 2000. An environmental and sustainability management programme was introduced under his leadership, and the production facilities have been certified according to the European Union (EMAS) since 2003.[5]

Recycled plastic was first used in production during 2008; the Recyclat Initiative was officially launched in 2012. The initiative collaborates with other partners, including the , with the aim of making greater use of plastics sourced from household waste. It calls on politicians and the general public to advocate a higher recycling rate in order to protect the climate and the oceans. In addition, the company seeks the advice of the in its Recyclat Initiative.[13] Packaging has consisted to 80% of recycled plastics – initially sourced mainly from plastic bottles – since 2010.[14] Detergent bottles used by the Frosch brand are now made entirely from recycled materials.[15][16] In 2019, the firm launched the first shower gel bottle made completely from recycled plastic obtained from the Yellow Sack.[17]

Public perception[]

Image and reception[]

The company’s ecological profile dominates public perception, especially due to the detergent brand Frosch (see Main article Frosch (brand)#Ecological focus). “Deutsche Standards – Marken des Jahrhunderts” (German Standards – Brands of the Century”, for instance, published by sees the Frosch brand as a “sustainability pioneer” and therefore attests to the formative influence that the brand has exerted on its industry.[18] Over the course of its history, the company has received a variety of awards for its actions, mainly environmental prizes since 2000. Among them was the Environmental Prize of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, which was awarded to the company for its new administrative building; later on it received an LEED certificate in the highest level (platinum) for sustainable building. The owner Reinhard Schneider was awarded the in 2019.[5]

Awards[]

  • 1991: Award of the Austrian Coat of Arms to the Austrian subsidiary plant and recognition of the company’s importance for the province of Salzburg and the city of Hallein.
  • 2010: Environment Prize of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate.[19]
  • 2012: LEED Platinum for the main administrative building on Rheinallee[20][21][22]
  • 2014: ECR Award for the Recyclat Initiative[23][24]
  • 2014: Packaging award for the company’s Recyclat Initiative[25]
  • 2014: German Ecodesign Award for the Recyclat Initiative[26][27]
  • 2019: for the company owner Reinhard Schneider[28]

Criminal product liability: Leather spray 1980–1988[]

In 1988, the company and its managers were put on trial in Germany, charged with negligent bodily injury and life-threatening health hazards. Company directors were accused of having failed to withdraw a leather spray from the market in good time, despite having known since 1980 of the health risks posed by the product manufactured by Werner & Mertz and distributed via subsidiaries (Erdal Rex GmbH, Solitär GmbH). They were also charged with failure to promptly affixed warning labels to the products.[29] The responsibility and liability of the managers were confirmed in an appeal-court ruling before the Federal Court of Justice.[30]

External links[]

Literature[]

  • Wolfgang Heck: 100 years of Erdal, 1901–2001. Brand quality in the sign of the frog. Published by Werner & Mertz. Werner & Mertz GmbH, Mainz 2001.
  • Kim & Axel Himer: The Big Book of Leather Care. Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2011. ISBN 978-3-86852-986-9

References[]

  1. ^ Werner & Mertz revenues 2012–2020 on de.statista.com, last retrieved on 30 June 2020.
  2. ^ a b Jens Koenen: Werner & Merz: A frog king in the land of giants. In: handelsblatt.com. Gabor Steingart, 27 November 2009, retrieved on 7 January 2018.
  3. ^ Sustainability Report 2016/2017. P. 5. Werner & Mertz, retrieved on 4 August 2014.
  4. ^ Stein, C.: “The frog is making big leaps”, in: Allgemeine Zeitung Mainz, 14 March 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Company history. In: werner-mertz.de. Retrieved on 20 June 2020.
  6. ^ Clean, all along the line (Memento dated 2 May 2007 in the Internet Archive). In: Naturschutz heute. No. 3, 6 August 1999.
  7. ^ Largest single investment in the history of Werner & Mertz, press release on werner-mertz.de, published on 23 May 2020, last retrieved on 30 June 2020.
  8. ^ German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA), Froschkönig trademark (1903)
  9. ^ Erdal buys Urbin. German trust for boot polish. In: Berliner Morgenpost. No. 256 dated 26 October 1928.
  10. ^ Products. In: frosch.de. Retrieved on 7 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Unsere Marken". www.wmprof.com (in German). Retrieved 2021-10-04.
  12. ^ About us on wmprof.com, last retrieved on 22 June 2020.
  13. ^ Erdal Rex GmbH – Frosch Cleaning Agents – NABU. Retrieved on 20 June 2020.
  14. ^ Our Recyclat Initiative, press release on werner-mertz.de dated 9 September 2014, last retrieved on 30 June 2020.
  15. ^ Reinhard Schneider: Cleaning agent brand Frosch at the vanguard of plastic recycling. Retrieved on 7 July 2020.
  16. ^ Our Recyclat Initiative, press release on werner-mertz.de dated 9 September 2014, last retrieved on 30 June 2020.
  17. ^ Bettina Röttig: Green lighthouse projects. In: Issue 18/2019, p. 80.
  18. ^ Frosch on deutsche-standards.de, last retrieved on 20 June 2020.
  19. ^ Award of the Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Prize 2010 in the Business category (Memento dated 18 December 2010 in the Internet Archive).
  20. ^ New construction of the Werner und Mertz main administratiev building. In: usgbc.org. U.S. Green Building Council, retrieved on 7 January 2018 (English).
  21. ^ Werner & Mertz generates more energy than it consumes. In: rhein-zeitung.de. Rhein-Zeitung, 28 September 2012, retrieved on 7 January 2018.
  22. ^ Broadcast dated 23 October 2012: Most prestigious international award for sustainable construction. In: swr.de. Südwestrundfunk, 23 October 2012, retrieved on 7 January 2018.
  23. ^ The Frosch Recyclat Initiative: The perfect circle. In: ganzheitlich-nachhaltig.de (archive). Werner & Merz, retrieved on 7 January 2018.
  24. ^ The winners in the Company Collaboration category. In: ecraward.de. Retrieved on 7 March 2018.
  25. ^ Frosch Recyclat Initiative. In: verpackungspreis.de. Deutsches Verpackungsinstitut e.V., retrieved on 7 January 2018.
  26. ^ German Ecodesign Award – competition – 2014 – award winners (archive). In: bundespreis-ecodesign.de. Internationales Design Zentrum Berlin e.V., retrieved on 7 January 2018.
  27. ^ German Ecodesign Award 2014: The winners have been picked. , 17 November 2014, retrieved on 7 January 2018.
  28. ^ Mainz entrepreneur awarded the German Environment Prize. SWR aktuell, 13 September 2019, retrieved on 13 September 2019.
  29. ^ LAWSUITS: Parrots in the mist. In: Der Spiegel. No. 8, 1988 (online).
  30. ^ BGHSt 37, 106 – Criminal product liability: Leather spray (Server Uni Bern, CH).
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