TOOTHBRUSH TECHNOLOGY Germany based M+C Schiffer GmbH is the world’s largest family-owned toothbrush company. Marco Siebel spoke with the managing director, Dirk Danne, about the company’s history, the new in-mould technologies and the company’s expansion policy of following customers in new markets and setting up local production facilities to stay on top of things locally.
M+C
Schiffer was founded in 1887 as the Rheydter Brush Factory, and started specialising in toothbrushes in 1945. In the years that followed, M+C Schiffer developed and patented the first anchorless toothbrush in Germany, created the ‘Dr.Best’ brand and established it in the marketplace. Today, M+C Schiffer has its headquarters in Neustadt, between Cologne and Frankfurt am Main, with production facilities in Austria, Germany and India. Dirk Danne: “We long ago devoted ourselves to the international market, establishing our locations in those places where our cus80 Industry Europe
tomers are. Our policy is to satisfy any and all customer requests worldwide. So if they want to sell their toothbrushes onto new markets, we will follow and build a new production facility, or buy one, as we have done in India.” The Schiffer Group employs more than 1000 people who together make sure the global market is supplied with over 1 million toothbrushes a day.
Cutting-edge production technologies M+C Schiffer is renowned for its efficient development and manufacturing processes. Thanks to cutting-edge technologies such as ‘rapid prototyping’ and working with experi-
mental tools, mass production of any type of toothbrush can be started up incredibly quickly. Development costs for accelerated product launches are kept to a minimum due to the extremely short time to market. Manufacturing itself extends right up to packaging via in-line production. By using this ‘no human touch’ production method, the company easily satisfies the most stringent hygiene requirements. Thanks to the modular structure of its manufacturing systems, the company remains flexible, which allows for providing tailored solutions to almost any conceivable customer request.
