Little weaknesses of our goods

About 90% of our goods are handmade. woven wickerwok items,handpottred clay containers, inlaidwork with wooden products, carved wood sculptures, handwoven cottonblankets and high quality varnish works; every product has its own character. Handmade means a product is unique, lively and has its own individual expression and message. This means that with us you will hardly find an item that is without slight “faults”.

Customers, who have visited us in Hürth, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Kaarst, Erwitte, Münster, Witten, Neuwied, Frankfurt or Mülheim know that this is very important and makes our range of goods extra special. There are always people who regard that as “faulty”. However seeing it from a negative side means that you lack the joy which comes from the matrial and the art and its local producers. Maybe you can keep that in mind when you spot a crack in the wood or a non regular bend in the handmade candlestick.

The market situation

When visiting fairs in India and China we realized that the time is changing faster and faster: German purchaser from different retail and wholesale chains enter all corners these days, even those hardly of interest in the former years.

However, we are convinced and confident. When we  chose  and purchase our handmade products special emphasis is put on items that are unavailable anywhere else. And that is part of our success.

The thought of fair trade

Many items in our product range have been reasonably priced for years. Often our customers or tradesmen ask us if the producers in the countries of origin earn enough to make a living when they produce for us. The answer is : Yes, they do. With our direct purchase at small workshops or manufactures we take part in fair trade. Traders, who often drastically dump prices remain outside due to our direct contacts with the producers.

Child labour

Suppliers, who use children as labourers when presenting their products are always avoided by us. However, we can never gurantee that no child labour is used when producing our items. To be frank, it is hard to distinguish between child labour and twelve year olds who, for some hours, help with the production of our goods in the various countries. However we are in close contact with all our producers so we can be relatively sure about what is going on. That stands in contrast to anonymous suppliers who are only in touch with producers via fairs, telephonemessages or faxmessages.

The new catalogue and the storage of our goods

For our catalogue 2011 /2012 we have included some new arrivals from our countries of purchase. We have added information about origin, material and kind of production.

We strieve to have all presented items in stock. If this is not the case we hope for your understanding.

Have fun travelling  through our homepage

Udo Fischer: Purchase, Purchase organisation, Advertisement design

The idea of fischer's warehouse

Our company was founded 15 years ago, together with the opening of our first shop. And since then a lot has happened. Due to a constantly growing number of customers we were given the opportunities for further development. The area for product trials was ever increasing and enabled us to develop new ideas; which is one of the main reasons why our choice of products has never been boring.

Apart from shops in Huerth, Dusseldorf, Kaarst, Wuppertal, Erwitte, Münster, Witten and Neuwied we are now running new shops in Frankfurt, Sindelfingen and Mülheim.

Positive feedback about our products enabled us to further expand our choice of products this year.

Our ideas, flexibility, cost awareness and teamspirit enabled us to become known in the area of fitting , despite vivid competition.

Direct purchase in the countries of manufature, as well as our monthly announced  seacontainer imports are one of the main reasons why the idea of fischer’s warehouse has become so successful.

Purchase and sources of supply

Five members of our team are responsible for the purchase and quality check of goods They visit our eight countries of purchase regularly, up to four times a year. Some examples for our countries of purchase are: China, Indonesia, Thailand, India and Morocco. Eight years ago we included Burma, six years ago Nepal . Vietnam was added five years ago.

During these travels orders are checked, and  unusual pieces of furniture found. Furthermore, we also use these visits to increase our variety of available goods.

 Choice of products

Be at fairs, local markets, bazaars, small workshops or big factories - we always follow the same sheme: the goods are compared and the most beautiful items are chosen. We check manufacture and talk to suppliers about possible improvements, if necessary.