The company history of SCHUCO

The history of SCHUCO is inextricably linked with the name of Heinrich Müller who had already produced ideas for toys by the age of 17. Almost all the plans and patents stemmed from ideas by Heinrich Müller. In 1912, he founded the Schreyer & Co toy company together with the businessman, Heinrich Schreyer. At the beginning, production was limited to felt and soft toys. The First World War interrupted operations which did not resume until the spring of 1919. SCHUCO, as the company was called from 1921, set a popular trend with its mechanical toys. The most successful item of the 1920s was Pick Pick, a tin bird with a soft covering. Over 20 million of these items were sold. The SCHUCO legend began to mature with the production of toy cars which began in the mid-'30s. The "Wende Auto" (tumble car) - which does not fall off the table - and the even more legendary Mercedes Silver Arrow, of which, at the height of production, 8,000 models were produced daily - each consisting of 101 individual parts - became top sellers.

In 1946, after the end of the Second World War, the first SCHUCO toys reappeared on the market. In those days, these toys were only exported to America. In 1952, the factory, the largest toy factory in Nuremberg, was rebuilt over approx. 13,000 square metres providing space for 800 employees. The sale of 100 million toys means that the name of SCHUCO is known throughout the world. At the end of the 1960s, the toy market began to change. Materials such as cast metal and plastic outstripped tinplate in popularity. SCHUCO did not recognise the need to change early enough and had to declare itself irrevocably bankrupt in 1976. The remaining assets were sold in 1976 to an English company, DCM, which also declared itself bankrupt in 1980. In the meantime, many tools and moulds had been scattered all over the globe and some had even been scrapped. In 1980, the SCHUCO name was bought by GAMA one of its former most formidable competitors. Its main focus was on the Silver Arrow racing cars which are still in SCHUCO's range today. In 1993, the companies TRIX and GAMA merged. At the same time, however, SCHUCO was given its own management and as a result the SCHUCO brand was reborn. Three years later, SCHUCO was released from TRIX and became an independent company again.

Once the Mangold family had completely withdrawn from the toy industry, SCHUCO was sold to the Sieber family in Fürth in 1999. This family has been working in the toy industry for three generations. SCHUCO became a company within the SIMBA-DICKIE-GROUP which in addition to the main brands of SIMBATOYS and DICKIE-SPIELZEUG also includes the EICHHORN, NORIS, DICKIE-TAMIYA, CARSON and BIG firms. The Group ranks internationally as one of the largest in the industry, with an annual turnover of approximately 340 million EUR. A total of approximately 800 people are employed at its headquarters in Fürth, in the logistics centre in Sonneberg, Thuringia, both in Germany, and in various other European countries. From this point on, the SCHUCO brand blossomed under its new management. Its success was also attributed to numerous new product groups and a creative and innovative policy determining the ranges available. As ever, SCHUCO is concentrating its efforts on the traditional and classic collectors' market and, with its new product lines such as historic model motorcycles and utility vehicles , it has gained new collectors. The loyal fan base of Piccolo collectors is constantly delighted by our new product ideas. New standards have been set over the past few years in terms of detail and quality. SCHUCO is also once again a partner for automobile groups such as Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Porsche and VW, a fact which cannot be ignored. Since its launch in the year 2000, the Junior Line has developed extremely successfully with the result that SCHUCO has been reintroduced to children's playrooms. Together with Edition 1:87 which was introduced in 2002, cars and trucks adapted to model railways on HO tracks, and the Distler figures made of metal which were launched in 2003 on a scale of 1:24, SCHUCO is once again on the way to re-establishing its worldwide reputation. At the Toy Fair in 2007, SCHUCO launched its first aeroplane models under the SCHABAK brand which it acquired the previous yea