1968 Expanding the Factory

Since the business was growing steadily, it was necessary to expand the raw production.

At that time it was not possible to find a new place in Denkendorf, so the company was forced to move part of the production. A building in the nearby city of Nürtingen was found and purchased so that the raw production could be moved there. Although raw production was in Nürtingen, all the pieces were painted, decorated and fired in Denkendorf for the final finishing.

In the early 70’s the collection kept growing and new markets were discovered. One such market was a large range of brandy jars developed and supplied to distilleries in the Black Forest, Austria and Switzerland. The souvenir market also began to take shape with a large range of items being produced with special designs and shapes.

Miniatures at that time mostly had a kind of farmer and country design decorations. Most of the miniatures were real play toys, but the time of the “shadow boxes” had just started, which made the miniatures perfect for decorations in wooden wall displays.

In the mid 70’s, M.W. Reutter obtained its first license, “Sarah Kay”. These drawings from an Australian woman artist were very popular. This design was the first of its kind, which was sold in a new marketing concept of combining goods from several manufacturers in one market strategy, something which is done today with almost every license design. It gave the company a basis into a much larger gift market and worldwide exporting of the products.

Martl and Willy had two sons: Bernd and Bertram.

The older son joined the company as a technical ceramic engineer in 1974. His younger brother Bertram Reutter followed him in 1980 as master of economics. Bertram Reutter continues today as the Managing Director of the company. Both sons changed the production process, the administration and collection of the company in the following years to cope with the changing market.