After a two-year break due to Corona, the ANWR GROUP has again announced the August Blanke Prize for the companies in the trade cooperation and awarded the prize winner 2022 as part of the dealer forum in Salzburg. Four companies were nominated under the aspects of courage and drive. The 2022 winners are Christian and Verena Lange from Schuhhaus Lange in Euskirchen. After the flood disaster of June 2021, they reopened their shop in Euskirchen in April 2022.
“The four nominated companies all stand for courage and a great entrepreneurial achievement,” summarized laudator and jury chairman Dr. Thomas Fischer summarizes the submissions. They would all have shown examples of how one’s own business model can be changed and expanded. Everyone was struggling with the pandemic and the difficult conditions that came with it. “They have all shown enormous courage and have consistently found a way that goes well beyond fighting a crisis.” The jury awarded the prize to Christian and Vernea Lange from Euskirchen. Lisa Volk from Schuh Volk from Elzach, Michael Reusch from Schuhhaus Hilbers from Nordhorn and Moritz Krellmann from Odenwald-Outdoor from Michelstadt were also nominated. dr Thomas Fischer and Frank Schuffelen, CEO of the ANWR GROUP eG, presented the prize, which is worth 5,000 euros.
Christian Lange: Take advantage of the catastrophe
Like so many other people, Christian Lange from Euskirchen was robbed of his professional existence on the night of July 14, 2021. The flood of the Erft covered the city center of Euskirchen and ruined his shop and all the goods. How to proceed: stop or continue? Only the latter was an option for Lange: in April 2022 he opened the new shop at the old location!
For Christian Lange, the strategy was quickly clear: “We want to be the local specialist shop and offer what a specialist family shop offers. We want to be the first port of call for families when it comes to shoes – with a focus on children’s shoes and the comfortable shoe area. Our inspiration for the new strategy is based on sustainable shoe retail. Despite many hurdles and unpredictable factors, we firmly believe in our future. The more convenient way would certainly be to stop, but we keep going! Two years of Corona, the flood disaster and the war in Ukraine are not making the environment any easier. None of this prevents us from taking on the new challenges with a lot of courage, willpower and ambition.”
“An unbelievable entrepreneurial achievement that you have achieved here and that convinced us in the jury,” said Thomas Fischer, explaining the jury’s vote. “You have shown the courage to start from scratch and not to let the severe setback get you down. You have shown courage to embark on an uncertain journey. They didn’t know if the new concept would work. They didn’t know whether the city center of Euskirchen could recover and whether customers would come back. You have shown the courage to take the entrepreneurial risk, to see and seize the opportunities and to continue the tradition of your company.”
Courage and energy in further concepts
In addition to Christian Lange, three other companies made it into the nomination round among the applications for the August Blanke Prize 2022: During the pandemic, Lisa Volk had expanded the range of goods in the branches under the motto “Beer in the shop – instead of Birkenstock”. When only systemically relevant shops were allowed to sell goods in the shop during the lockdown phase, Lisa Volk added “Black Forest pop-up stores” to the branches. Regional products – from beer and fruit brandy to Black Forest ham – were offered there. This meant that “s’Lädele Volk” had more than 60 percent food in its range and was therefore able to open.
Under the motto “Courage or cockiness and no chance without risks?” Michael and Melanie Reusch modernized and expanded the branch network of their shoe store Hilbers from Nordhorn during the pandemic period and at the same time invested in the professionalization of e-commerce. After two years of the pandemic, the bottom line for Michael Reusch is: “Now we are represented in locations where we would probably not be represented without the pandemic, and at the same time we are growing profitably in e-commerce.”
And finally, the jury recognized the energy of Moritz Krellmann from Michelstadt with his project “Gold in Boots – Old Love, New Chances”. The outdoor shoe experts take back worn-out hiking boots, regardless of their condition. There is a 30 euro discount on the purchase of new shoes. The rubber soles, leather and metal of the old shoes are professionally separated in Michelstadt for further recycling. It is advertised for this and for its own online shop via the website https:// Stiefelgold.de/.
The jury
Members of the jury were the journalist Prof. Dr. Björn P. Böer, management consultant and co-initiator of the nationwide campaign “Deutschland Kauf Lokal” Dr. Thomas Fischer, Britta Goertz, specialist retailer and member of the supervisory board of the ANWR GROUP eG, Robert Vögel, specialist retailer from Bregenz, as well as for the ANWR GROUP eG board members Frank Schuffelen and Fritz Terbuyken as well as Ullrich Lüke, head of corporate communications.
About ANWR GROUP
The ANWR GROUP eG with its headquarters in Mainhausen (Hessen) is one of the most successful and top-selling trade cooperations in Europe. The group of companies, organized as a cooperative, optimizes processes and provides trading and communication platforms for independent shoe, sports and leather retailers. Around 20,000 medium-sized companies are affiliated with the ANWR group of companies via its two banks – DZB BANK GmbH and AKTIVBANK AG. The group itself employs around 1,400 people.