Almost everyone knows them: preserving jars. The glasses have been around for more than 120 years. But the brand could soon be history. The manufacturing company has filed for bankruptcy.
They can be found in many cellars and pantries: preserving jars. The most well-known of these containers come from the Weck company. With the strawberry logo, brand name and orange sealing ring, they have become a symbol for preserving food. The term “wakening” is even in the dictionary. The company from the south of Baden-Württemberg has now filed for bankruptcy. This was announced by a spokeswoman for the wake-up group on Tuesday.
The traditional company therefore wants to restructure itself in the insolvency proceedings. Specifically, it is about the parent company J. Weck GmbH & Co. KG based in the city of Wehr and the subsidiary Weck Glaswerk GmbH with a production site in Bonn. According to the Karlsruhe district court, both procedures were opened on Monday. The Freiburg lawyer Thilo Braun was appointed provisional insolvency administrator. The “Wirtschaftswoche” had previously reported.
Lower demand and too high energy prices
The administration, sales and publishing business of the group are located in southern Baden. 115 people work there. The glass factory in Bonn employs 260 people. According to the insolvency administrator Braun, the business continues unabated. The wages and salaries of the employees are covered by the insolvency money up to and including August.
The company was recently affected by lower demand and high energy prices. “Due to the price increases for gas as an energy source, there have been significant burdens in recent months,” managing director Eberhard Hackelsberger is quoted as saying in a statement. “Glass production is energy-intensive and the melting furnaces used cannot simply be shut down without irreparably damaging them.”
The glass industry is one of the sectors of the economy that is particularly suffering from high energy prices. The trigger was the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Consumers are also more reluctant to make purchasing decisions because of high inflation, which is partly a result of the war.
Weck boss Hackelsberger is the fourth generation to run the company. The business administration graduate is the great-grandson of company founder Johann Weck. Together with his business partner and successor Georg von Eyck, he launched the preserving jar manufacturer in the early 1900s. A little later, “waking up” was already being taught at cooking schools – and the glasses became one of the first branded items in Germany.
Alarm jars experienced a boom during the world wars
The demand for the resealable glass containers boomed in the following years – especially in times of need, such as during the two world wars. People depended on preserving food. According to the Weck company chronicle, hundreds of millions of glasses were produced by the end of the Second World War.
With the increasing spread of refrigerators and freezers, Weck’s business also changed in the post-war period. Since then, the family business has also been producing glass packaging for the food industry – for pickles and mustard, for example. In addition, candle jars for churches and cemeteries are produced.
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Although preserving food is back in fashion and glasses are also popular in gastronomy, today they only make up a fraction of the product range. As can be seen from the last annual report for 2021, the sales target for the current year was a total of 420 million glass packaging. It was initially not known whether Weck would stick to it.
The coming weeks and months will show how the long-established company will continue. “The most important thing now is the stabilization of business operations and the immediate initiation of the necessary restructuring measures,” said Braun according to the announcement. The economic situation and the restructuring options for Weck are to be examined this week.
Source: Stern
