Water is not just water, and bath is not just bath. That, almost fanatical insisting on quality and art, earned Dornbracht the nickname "the masters of water".
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The history of Dornbracht begins 50 years ago, one evening after work. Aloys F. Dornbracht and his son Helmut were still working in other businesses during the day. The idea was born: They needed to earn enough money during the day to be able to finance their work for their own company in the evening.
Mr. Dornbracht took the train to Cologne, his suitcase loaded with fittings he had produced himself, but the wholesalers always replied: "Don't need any". But Aloys F. Dornbracht always came back, and then "they said, all right then, we'll take three or four off the old man's hands after all." Today, Mr. Dornbracht can be satisfied: the company is producing 40,000 of those fittings every month.
The product involved had no competitor at the time: an extendable tap for use primarily above stoves in large kitchens. With the patented Dornbracht tap, users could direct the jet of water straight to where the cooking pots stood. And there was more and more cooking going on in Germany beginning in the 1950's. This is how the little two-man operation grew, and after two years' time, they took the plunge into absolute independence.
By that time, Helmut Dornbracht's sister had joined the company, and the first employees were hired. Until 1961, the operation had spread out around the old cabin, and with its tap, its swivel and pivoting valves and its wash basin mixers, the company with its 12 employees was enjoying an annual turnover measured in millions. The market had long since expanded beyond the Cologne area, and Dornbracht fittings were being delivered as far away as the Middle East.
Dornbracht is and remains a functioning family business. To this day, old Mr. Dornbracht floats through the halls of the operation almost daily. But his sons Andreas and Matthias have been running business operations for many years now. One is in charge of marketing, product development and sales, while the other heads up the manufacturing process. This division of labour dates back to the days when the two were youths.
The first tap was, at the time, without rivals on the market. Right from the outset, Dornbracht was meant to be not a producer of fittings in the conventional sense but instead intentionally parted ways with the beaten path again and again. The objective was to bring innovation and the highest possible quality into the world of the bathroom. But this is not a modern marketing concept, it is a continuation of the company's tradition of 50 years' standing. ■