The transition of the Deinhard brand is to be
Clinics and doctors, but also midwives and physiotherapists, urgently need a supply of disinfectants. „If you can’t wash your hands, it’s over,“ said Funke, who herself runs a pharmacy in Wiesbaden. Pharmacists also experienced difficulties in supplying them.
BASF has also started the free production of disinfectants and is now intensifying its efforts. After the Dax group supplied hospitals with intensive care beds in the Rhine-Neckar region, they are now concentrating on medical practices with emergency care tasks, it was said recently.
„The interest is huge,“ said BASF board member Michael Heinz. Well over 1000 clinics, practices and similar institutions from all over Germany would have reported. Since the production capacities at the Ludwigshafen site are limited to around 35 tons per week, priorities have to be set. BASF is not a manufacturer of disinfectants, but purchases essential raw materials for them externally or dispenses chemicals for production. „However, we will not start aggressively buying raw materials on the market,“ emphasized Heinz. That would make the situation worse for companies that manufacture disinfectants on a large scale.
The sparkling wine producer Henkell Freixenet sells the sparkling wine and wine business under the Deinhard brand to the Peter Mertes winery in Rhineland-Palatinate. „In addition to the domestic sparkling wine business with Deinhard Lila and Deinhard Cabinet, sales include the international wine business,“ announced the Wiesbaden-based company on Wednesday. Deinhard is the market leader for German wine in Canada.
„The sale enables us to further focus on our international and local core brands such as Freixenet, Mionetto, Henkell and Fürst von Metternich,“ said Andreas Brokemper, spokesman for the management of Henkell Freixenet.
The company did not provide any information on the selling price. The transfer of the Deinhard brand took place on September 1st. The Peter Mertes winery in Bernkastel-Kues is known for its wine brands such as Rotwild, Maybach and Bree.
The companies Merck and Henkell Freixenet are donating around 45,000 liters of disinfectant for Wiesbaden hospitals in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. A corresponding agreement between Wiesbaden-based Merck Performance Materials and the sparkling wine cellar was signed on Thursday, as both companies announced. Henkell will donate the pure alcohol required, while Merck will take care of further processing at its production site.
Germany’s economy is slipping into recession (Photo: dpa) Lightning downturn in Europe: The recession hit the western industrialized countries in full. Finance Minister Steinbrück puts German citizens in the mood for „tough times“ – but economists expect things to look up again in a year.
Quiz – What do you know about the major financial crises? Is my money still safe? – Chronicle – Recessions in the Federal Republic of Germany
Economic output decreased
Crisis mood in Europe: The EU slipped into recession at the latest with the gloomy German economic figures. The economic output of the economic leader Germany fell significantly in the third quarter. Compared to the previous quarter, the gross domestic product (GDP) was 0.5 percent lower, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday. The German economy is in a so-called technical recession with two consecutive negative quarters.
Hard times for the Germans
Federal Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück put the Germans in the mood for tough times. „It makes no sense to throw sand in someone’s eyes,“ said the SPD politician. It could be that the economy is moving from stagnation into recession. „Times are getting harder for the Federal Republic of Germany.“
Real change in gross domestic product (Infographic: dpa)
Steinbrück against economic stimulus programs
Steinbrück rejected large-scale economic programs. The state could not finance against such a global development. The government’s investment program (see info box), on the other hand, is correct because it works quickly, has a large leverage effect for investments and aims to secure jobs. Numerous high-ranking experts disagree – they describe the government’s economic stimulus program as „too small“, as a „hodgepodge of disjointed measures“ or as „symbolic politics“.
„The decline is stronger than we expected“
Economists had already forecast the collapse of the German economy. Nevertheless, they were surprised: they had only expected an average of 0.2 percent. „The decline is stronger than we expected. The main message is: We have it in black and white, the recession is here,“ said Sebastian Wanke, economist at DekaBank.
How long does the low last?
The question that experts are now asking is: How long will the low last? For Germany, Wanke assumes that the economy will pick up again in the second half of 2009. „If it bottomed out at this point, it would be a longer than average recession,“ he says. On Wednesday, the five economic wise men had predicted a recession for the coming year. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently painted a particularly bleak picture: According to this, Germany’s economy will shrink by 0.8 percent in 2009.
Great downturn in the UK
But not only Germany is slipping into recession. Great Britain is also preparing for an unexpectedly severe downturn. According to forecasts by the Bank of England (BoE), the British economy could contract by up to two percent in the first half of 2009. In England, too, the experts are asking themselves: How long will the low last? The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee expects the economic slump to persist until the end of 2010. According to the British central bank, the outlook is so bleak that the institute has already announced further rate hikes after last week’s record rate cut.
Further rate cuts
„We are ready to cut interest rates again if we have to,“ said Federal Reserve Governor Mervyn King recently. Insiders believe it is possible that the BoE could soon lower the key rate to two percent, and even to one percent in the medium term. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling spoke in an interview with the „Independent“ of a „severe but short“ recession. In a budget report that he plans to publish the week after next, Darling will forecast an economic decline of one percent for 2009, but growth again for 2010. Just a few months ago, the British government claimed that Britain was coping well with the effects of the financial crisis.
Dark prospects for all of Europe
The prospects for the rest of Europe are also bleak. European companies are „more affected than originally assumed“ by the consequences of the drastically worsening global financial crisis, said EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia at the beginning of November when the EU Commission presented the autumn forecast.
Only weak growth
According to this forecast, the gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro area will only grow by 0.1 percent in 2009. Brussels has thus revised the original forecast downwards by 1.5 percentage points. For the current year, the authority is still expecting 1.2 percent growth, in 2007 the increase was 2.7 percent. An expert survey by the European Central Bank (ECB) has now come to the same result.
Table – This is how Europe’s economy is shrinking and growing
EU economic recovery plan
In addition to Germany, France and Italy are also threatened with stagnation in 2009, according to the EU Commission’s report. For Spain, Ireland, Estonia and Latvia, too, the EU Commission predicts that the economy will shrink. Ireland and the two Baltic states are already in recession, according to an EU report. For the 27 EU countries as a whole, the forecast only envisages an increase of 0.2 percent in 2009 after 1.4 percent in the current year. „The financing stress could become even more intense, take longer or have a stronger impact on the real economy,“ said Almunia. At the end of November the EU Commission wants to present an economic stimulus plan.
All OECD industrialized countries are sliding into recession
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also gives a gloomy forecast: In 2009 economic output in the 30-nation OECD area will fall by 0.3 percent, the organization said on Thursday in Paris. For 2010 it is again assuming growth of 1.5 percent. In the 15 countries of the euro zone, the OECD expects economic output to decline by 0.5 percent in 2009, before returning to growth in 2010 with growth of 1.2 percent.
Rising unemployment
„The OECD economy appears to be entering recession, and unemployment is rising in many countries,“ the organization said in its outlook for the US, Japan and the euro area. For the USA, the OECD predicts that the gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink by 0.9 percent in 2009 and then grow by 1.6 percent in 2010. For Japan, the experts expect a decline of 0.1 percent in the coming year and an increase of 0.6 percent in the year after next. In addition, the OECD predicts an average unemployment rate of 5.9 percent for its member states this year. In the course of the crisis, it will rise to 6.9 percent in 2009 and 7.2 percent in 2010.
More topics: Financial market crises The most important import partners in 2007
Final end for one of the earlier figureheads of the German fashion industry: the ailing Swabian luxury fashion manufacturer Strenesse ceases operations at the end of the year. The long-established company justified the step on Wednesday with the effects of the Corona crisis. 56 employees will be affected by the closure, added company spokeswoman Carolin Obermaier.
The fashion retailer from Nördlingen in Bavaria has been in crisis for years. A year ago, Strenesse filed for insolvency proceedings in self-administration for the second time. However, the desired return to the road to success did not come about. In the first quarter of 2020, when the restructuring was almost complete, there was still a positive sales development, but the effects of the pandemic could no longer be compensated, explained Strenesse.
The predecessor company of today’s Strenesse New GmbH had already gone the way of insolvency in self-administration in 2014, later the proceedings were converted by the court into regular insolvency proceedings. In the event of bankruptcy in self-administration, the management remains in office, but receives support from external restructuring experts.
The fashion manufacturer from Nördlingen had been run by the founding Strehle family for 65 years before the family had to give up control of the indebted company to investors a few years ago due to the crisis. Before that, Strenesse had long been considered a particularly successful representative of German designer fashion. The Strehle family founded their textile factory for women’s outerwear in Nördlingen in 1949.
The factory grew steadily over the coming decades, with the Strenesse product line first appearing at the end of the 1960s. The brand is an artificial word from the name of the owner family and the French „Jeunesse“ (youth). In the 1990s, the collection developed by then creative director Gabriele Strehle became an internationally sought-after designer brand. Strenesse presented itself in Milan, the Swabian fashion was sold in Japan and a subsidiary was founded in the USA.
In the meantime, the company was also known as an outfitter for the national soccer team. National coach Jogi Löw made headlines first with a white shirt and then with a blue „lucky sweater“ from the Strenesse production. However, this could not lead the North Swabian supplier out of the red in the long term.
At the beginning of 2014, the then boss Luca Strehle was still able to convince the creditors of a twelve-million-euro bond to wait three years longer for the repayment of the borrowed money. At that time, Strenesse still had around 400 employees. In the following years, however, more and more staff were cut and the number of own sales outlets reduced. Other German fashion labels such as Escada, Gerry Weber, Esprit, Zero and Steilmann have also suffered from the crisis in the industry in recent years.
In view of the rapid increase in new corona infections in Thuringia, the CDU parliamentary group has criticized the state government’s crisis management. This obviously does not work, said the parliamentary managing director Andreas Bühl on Friday. In the past few weeks, a multi-dimensional problem has developed in Thuringia.
On the one hand, the Ministry of Education, for example, acted hesitantly and unclearly when dealing with the Corona level concept for schools or the new Corona regulation was „poorly“ conveyed. „And on the other hand, a not to be neglected part of the population does not understand the need for protective measures,“ stated Bühl.
After Saxony, Thuringia is currently the state with the highest seven-day value for new infections. According to figures from the Berlin Robert Koch Institute on Friday, 3412 people were newly infected with the Sars-CoV2 virus in the past seven days. That corresponds to almost 160 cases per 100,000 inhabitants during this period.
On Friday, for the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic, more than 1000 new infections with the Sars-CoV2 virus were reported in one day. From Thursday to Friday, 1035 new cases were counted, as the Ministry of Health announced, citing RKI figures. The number of people who died infected with the virus has increased by 11 since Thursday to 405.
Because of the rapid increase, Health Minister Heike Werner (Linke) invited the scientific advisory board, which is advising the state government on the corona pandemic, to a video conference on Friday. It is about evaluating the development, said a ministry spokesman.
According to DekaBank, the risks for the German economy from the failure of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers are manageable. „This is a cleaning thunderstorm; but the storm area is quite extensive,“ said DekaBank chief economist Ulrich Kater.