Medienmitteilungen Saison 2015 / Englisch

GARDEN FURNITURE M A D E I N S W I T Z E R L A N D

Media release

A Summer Dream: «Rigi Swiss Wood»

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Schaffner AG launches «Rigi Swiss Wood» garden furniture with Thurgau ashwood slats.

The seats and backs of «Rigi» chairs are made of well-matured Swiss timber slats from the forests near our producer: genuine Thurgau ashwood! Each piece of wood is lovingly fashioned and finished with traditional local craftsmanship, retaining its unique grain to delight the eye again and again.This entire ensemble is of course weatherproof like all Schaffner garden furniture. The easily stackable chairs come optionally with or without armrests. All wood surfaces are finished in classical red or white, or clear varnish.It goes without saying that «Rigi Swiss Wood» garden furniture is made in Switzerland. This upholds the Schaffner reputation for quality and durability – and minimizes trans-port, for the sake of the environment.«Rigi Swiss Wood» by Schaffner AG is available from selected retailers, high-class de-partment stores and online shops. | www.schaffner-ag.ch

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Technical data: «Rigi Swiss Wood»:- Tabletop size: 80x80 or 140x80 cm- Chairs with or without armrests: 86x50/x59 cm, seat height 47 cm- Weights: table 80x80 cm 12.5 kg / 140x80 cm 21 kg- Colours (tabletop): red, white or black; (frame): hot-galvanized or black- Colours (slats): red or white or clear varnish; (frame): hot-galvanized or black

Media release Schaffner AG | August 2014 | V01


Media release

Filigree Elegance: Bernardino!

Schaffner AG marks its sixtieth anniversary with the elegant new «Bernardino» line.

The new «Bernardino» collection features beautifully curved table legs – pure elegance – on which the 8 mm thin fold-down tabletop seems to float in mid-air. Ballet dancers are sturdy and sure-footed, however, and this one is no exception. «Bernardino» is named after the famous Swiss alpine pass to symbolize this breakth-rough into a new design language. Its unique design is in fact patented, and furthermore offers exceptional legroom particularly at the corners – ideal for those lazy summer evenings with friends around the table.For a perfect ensemble, we recommend «Bernardino» benches or chairs from the ex-tensive Schaffner selection. It goes without saying that tables, benches and chairs are all weatherproof, with foot levellers and fold-down tabletop.All Schaffner products including «Bernardino» garden furniture are entirely made in Swit-zerland. This upholds the Schaffner reputation for quality and durability – and minimizes transport for the sake of the environment.«Bernardino» by Schaffner AG is available from selected retailers, high-class department stores and online shops. | www.schaffner-ag.ch


Technical data: «Bernardino»:- Tabletop: 220x100 cm- Benchtop: 220x32 cm- Weight of table/bench: 57/22 kg- Colours: tabletop/benchtop anthracite, frame hot-galvanized or anthracite



Media release

Open fire!

Schaffner AG marks its sixtieth anniversary by adding practical and elegant hot-galvanized steel woodpile holders to the product offering

People have gathered around the fireplace from time immemorial. How nice it is to watch the dancing flames and feel the spreading warmth, how peacefully fascinating the crackling of the wood and smell of the smoke. Schaffner AG embellishes this fascination with an elegant new line of steel woodpile holders. The various models cover all wood storage needs according to location and utilization. These woodpile holders are of course weatherproof and also double as standing tables or benches.All Schaffner products including these woodpile holders are made in Switzerland. We manufacture our own hot-galvanized steel frames and Schaffner fibreglass tab-letops. This upholds the Schaffner reputation for quality and durability – and mini-mizes transport for the sake of the environment.

«Woodpile» by Schaffner AG is available from selected retailers, high-class depart-ment stores and online shops. | www.schaffner-ag.ch


Dimensions, «Woodpile»:- Woodpile large 180x120x28 cm- Woodpile small 90x50x28 cm- Woodpile standing table 70x70x110 cm- Woodpile bench 160x32 cm



Media release

Sixty years Schaffner AG; a company portrait

Schaffner AG was founded exactly sixty years ago by Peter Schaffner in 1954. This family-owned company, currently in its second and third management generation, spe-cializes in developing, manufacturing and marketing garden furniture.Schaffner product development focuses on timeless classical design, first-class work-manship and materials. Schaffner garden furniture has always been made in Switzer-land, and this now constitutes an exclusive competitive edge. It enables great flexibility in handling short-term or weather-related customer needs. Furthermore, local produc-tion is more environment-friendly because transport to the principal markets (Switzer-land, Germany and Austria) is minimized compared with Far East production. And it also safeguards jobs in Switzerland.Schaffner garden furniture production still demands a great deal of specialized crafts-manship: for perfect results, «Spaghetti» stringing has to be done by hand. Schaffner fibreglass tabletops are produced with a 1600-tonne press at the Müllheim works in canton Thurgau, Switzerland, where a powder-coating facility ensures the perfect finish expected by Schaffner customers. All welding is also done in-house. This way, Swiss Quality is consistently upheld.

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Contact: Schaffner AG Frauenfelderstr. 39 8555 Müllheim

[email protected] www.schaffner-ag.ch More illustrations: [email protected]


Company founder Peter Schaffner (1921-2002)

First products, first logo (ca. 1955) Headquarters in Müllheim, canton Thurgau, Switzerland (since 1964)


Media release

60 years Schaffner AG

The Schaffners have what many a company is missing today: an attentive view towards new horizons, the courage to take up unusual challenges and to go th-rough with them even in the face of adversity. Even in the 60th year of our com-pany. «I think that we are living something like the «Pioneer spirit» of the former US pioneers,» says Martin Schaffner, 50, together with his brother Theo, 58, and nephew Samuel, 32, manager of the probably most important Swiss factory for timelessly modern outdoor furniture. The trio rely on their feeling for continually updated market know-how instead of chasing after short-lived trends. They pro-duce originals instead of copying and, like the leading heads of the US founding times, go their path without paying attention to any industry gossip. «With these qualities, we have become a brand that has been known and valued beyond Europe for a long time,» says Martin Schaffner.It all started out quite humbly, with little money and a single welding gun, but lots of enthusiasm. Schaffner's father, the perfect self-made man, and his wife worked in their basement to produce their first garden chairs, later purchasing a factory hall and thus laying the corner stone of the company «He was what is still im-portant to us today: independent and free in his decisions.» Like his descendants, Schaffner senior was a man of the market frontier, instead of one who acted from a hidden back office. «I often stand in the shops selling our products to observe and listen to what customers praise or complain of,» says Martin Schaffner. That is important, he says. Schaffner considers itself a «niche player with a high-quality range produced by people who love their jobs – and in a country that puts quality above all else.» Time and time again, the family-owned company has produced surprises: in 1973, they made the first screwed garden table, following in 1984 with the first extensible one. «We don't just produce consumables. We figure out needs far in advance.»Martin Schaffner established contacts in the USA early on. At the Cologne trade fair, he met the purchaser of former chain Smith & Hawken, who often appeared in the company of Rob Forbes, the founder of «Design within reach». They met to discuss the business, exchanged ideas and got along at once. «The Americans often flew home with chocolate, cheese or a Swiss army knife from me,» says Martin Schaffner. When Smith & Hawken disappeared from the market, Rob For-bes was greatly interested in the Schaffners' Inox table, an outstanding piece with stainless steel top without any wooden core, produced in the old method of metal spinning. «It was greatly loved in the US,» says the entrepreneur from Müllheim in the canton Thurgau. First, the USA had mainly known his uncle, an unconventional man of the same last and first name, who had US bombers that had crashed in the Swiss mountains recovered after World War II. «There still is the engine of one of those War Birds attached to our company's façade,» Martin Schaffner says.Forbes was particularly convinced of the Schaffners' know-how and their product range that could be used outdoors anywhere from Canada to California without ever showing rust. Classics such as the garden chair «Säntis» or the fiber glass table Luzern, the table top of which is no more than eight millimeters thick, are always in demand. «It's near-unbreakable, just as I am as the company's mana-ger,» says Martin Schaffner, who relies on Swissness in everything. All products are named after places or mountains known and popular in Switzerland. Nothing is over-styled and everything is as beautiful as it is functional. Every single item is produced in the family's factory, guaranteeing for best values: Tradition, consisten-

cy and reliability. However, it is also a family continually committed to innovation. With a free spirit – the spirit of the US pioneers. «It doesn't matter whether our furniture is put up in a wonderful Swiss lake area or in the wild Rocky Mountains,» says Martin Schaffner. Who knows – maybe a table called «Overseas» will soon be part of his company's range.

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Medienmitteilungen Saison 2015 / Englisch