Firecrackers and rockets: fireworks “more popular than ever” despite higher prices

Despite the weak economy, Germany’s largest fireworks company Weco expects people to spend more money on rockets, firecrackers and other pyrotechnics this year. “The quantity available in retail is estimated to be a fifth larger than last year,” says Weco’s sales manager, Oliver Gerstmeier, in Eitorf (NRW), referring to his own volumes and industry figures. In the past two years, fireworks have been almost sold out in stores, so the supply has now been significantly increased. “Fireworks are more popular than ever before.”

The Association of the Pyrotechnic Industry (VPI) estimates the increase in supply to be around 15 percent. According to the information, sales of New Year’s Eve fireworks were around 180 million euros at the end of 2023. According to its own statements, Weco has a fireworks market share of around two thirds in Germany. Weco imports the majority of its products from China and, to a small extent, from countries such as the Czech Republic, where sparklers are made, and Switzerland, where “volcanoes” come from.

The company produces 20 percent itself at its two locations in Eitorf near Cologne and in Kiel – making Weco, with a total of 280 employees, the last large pyrotechnics manufacturer in Germany. Competitors include the fireworks dealers Nico from Berlin, Comet from Bremerhaven; In Freiberg (Saxony) there is another small producer, FKF GmbH.

In the fireworks business, companies provide retailers with a quantity that can be sold on the last three sales days of the year. Whatever is not sold goes back to the fireworks companies.

Recently there have been hardly any returns

It is still unclear whether the additional amount of pyrotechnics will actually be sold well in supermarkets, discount stores and other points of sale. In the years before Corona, the return rate was a fifth – that’s how much the fireworks companies had to take back. After the Corona years, in which fireworks were banned on New Year’s Eve 2020 and 2021, the return rate was almost zero, said Gerstmeier. “In many stores the goods were sold out on the first day of sale.”

However, the Weco sales manager restricts that the sales forecast this year is difficult, after all, the general economic weakness and worries about jobs are dampening the mood of many consumers. According to Gerstmeier, the prices for fireworks have risen because freight rates for imports from China have become expensive.

From an economic point of view, however, he has no concerns for his company’s business, because looking at the past decades, the rule of thumb can be derived: “The tighter the budget, the more fireworks are bought – many people find this very important in order to cope with that To end the old year well and start the new year well.”

Environmentalists are critical of fireworks because they release fine dust and create waste. Weco says it has largely switched from plastic to paper and cardboard in order to minimize plastic waste. Animal rights activists, in turn, warn of the consequences of the noise and fireworks lights for birds and wild animals, which are startled and injured or whose hibernation is disturbed.