Which company is manufacturer of Küchenstolz V-Hobel ?

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 25 Jun 2004 06:50 PDT

Dear bah11,

I suspect that, though sometimes still advertised as "Made in
Germany", the Küchenstolz V-Hobel is not manufactured in Germany
anymore.

I did research using the German Trademark Directory. Originally, the
trademark "Küchenstolz" was owned by the kitchen knife manufacturing
company Ferdinand Mertens GmbH in Solingen, Germany, since 1932.
However, the trademark was deleted quite recently, on 25 June 2003.
The Ferdinand Mertens GmbH is not existing anymore now.

Only some months after deletion, another company applied for
registration of an almost similar trademark: "Küchen-Stolz", for
kitchen appliances in General, and explicitly for "Hobel" (planers).

The company that now owns the trademark is not a manufacturer, but
only a distributor. So I assume that they have bought the Mertens
Küchenstolz V-Hobel manufacturing tools and have it now produced by an
anonymous outsourced manufacturer, while the trademark owner only does
distribution.

Would you accept contact information for the current owner of the
trademark as a valid answer?

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by bah11-ga on 25 Jun 2004 07:15 PDT

Dear scriptor-ga,
thank you for your reply,please send me the address of this tool distributor.
I want to buy that equipment from them in bulk.
regards
bah11

Dear bah11,

This is the distribution company currently owning the trademark:

Stolz Propaganda-Vertriebs GmbH
Lochhamer Strasse 4a
82152 Planegg
GERMANY
--
Phone: +49(0)89-8958344
Fax: +49(0)89-8958196
E-Mail: mail@stolzgmbh.de
Website: http://www.stolzgmbh.de/


Sources:

German Patent and Trademark Office: Trademark Database
https://dpinfo.dpma.de/protect/mar.html

German Official Yellow Pages
http://www.gelbeseiten.de/

Search terms used:
küchenstolz
://www.google.de/search?q=k%C3%BCchenstolz&ie=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
"stolz propaganda"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22stolz+propaganda%22&btnG=Suche&meta=


Hope this will meet your needs!
Regards,
Scriptor

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Request for Answer Clarification by bah11-ga on 26 Jun 2004 06:13 PDT

Dear scriptor-ga,
Thank you for your answer,I checked the website of that company but as
i noticed they have not that equipment that I have in my mind
(Haushalt: Küchenstolz V-Hobel ),,Are you sure they have it?
Best regards
bah11

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 26 Jun 2004 07:34 PDT

Dear bah11,

I too have searched the company's website. I searched their shop
section for the term "Hobel", and I found this item (No. 1501, Unifix
Super-V-Hobel, "Seen on TV"):
http://www.stolzgmbh.de/shop/cat_images/1501.jpg

Though the picture is rather small, it shows the same V-Hobel other
websites offer under the name "Küchenstolz V-Hobel". Please compare
these images:

"Original Küchenstolz V-Hobel"
http://www.topnews.at/images/stolzhobelcols2.jpg
Source: Topnews.at Sonderangebote
http://www.topnews.at/sonderangebote/kuechenstolz.html

"Unifix Super-V-Hobel" (larger image)
http://i10.ebayimg.com/02/i/01/e3/1f/38_1_b.JPG
Source: Shopolade Ebay Store
http://stores.ebay.de/shopolade

As I see it, the V-Hobel is only for TV Shop distribution packaged in
sets with additional equipment and labelled "Küchenstolz". But the
V-Hobel itself is the same as the Unifix Super-V-Hobel.

But now here is something that might prove very interesting: I did
some more research in the German Trademark Database, this time for
"Unifix". And I found out that "Unifix" is owned by a German plastic
items manufacturer, "elm-plastic GmbH". Their trademark for explicitly
relates to:
"Household appliances made from stainless steel (...), in particular
V-Hobel, V-Hobel with fruit holders..."

The company's website does not mention the V-Hobel, but the reason why
is obvious: elm-plastic mainly produce highly specialized, quality
laboratory equipment. A cheap kitchen appliance would look odd there.

Knowing this, I say that:
- elm-plastic manufactures the V-Hobel under the Unifix brand.
- Stolz Propaganda-Vertrieb distributes the Unifix Super-V-Hobel.
- Stolz Propaganda-Vertrieb also re-packages the Unifix V-Hobel and
distributes it under their own Küchenstolz brand via TV Shopping
programs.

In case you prefer to contact elm-plastic instead of Stolz, here is
their full address:

elm-plastic GmbH
Gewerbegebiet
D-54647 Dudeldorf
GERMANY
--
Phone: +49 (0) 65 65 / 92 90-0
Fax: +49 (0) 65 65 / 92 90-29
e-Mail: info@elm-plastic.de
Website: http://www.elm-plastic.de/


I hope this will be useful!
Regards,
Scriptor