A saga of schnitzel, beer and fridges: Appliances Online on-tour in Germany

October 23rd, 2012

Appliance Talk Fridges & Freezers Stuff about appliances you'd be an idiot not to read

Recently, a member of the Appliances Online team was lucky enough to be taken on an all-expenses-paid trip to Germany courtesy of the Liebherr Group, one of our suppliers of elite fridges.

The mission statement was to get grips with a truly primo brand and behold German efficiency and innovation in the flesh. Oh and that the trip coincided with Oktoberfest was a neat caveat.

Here is the report – the highs, the lows, the middle ground. With all the juicy bits naturally thrown in lest we bore you with the slide-show.

Who are Liebherr?

A German Group, comprising more than 120 subsidiary companies worldwide. Their portfolio includes everything from excavation machinery to hotel operation.

And fridges. Hence why we were there in the first place. These outstanding appliances grace the showroom at Winning Appliances stores and also light up the interweb at Appliances Online.

Free Beer

The trip started well with a truly awesome tour of the Indian ocean at 32,000 thousand feet via a 14 hour flight from Sydney to Dubai. 6am landing, as fresh as a daisy, in the duty-free perfume and cigarette wonderland that is Dubai airport. Dodging said delights, I met up with the mötley crüe of retailers that comprised the tour group – and thence to Munich (via plane).

Fortunately the usual jarring sensation of international travel was the only bum note on an expertly coordinated trip. Their Liebherr brand of welcoming vibes and all-round customer satisfaction embraced us from the outset in Munich. Here we were not only warmly greeted by Liebherr’s Manager of the Asia-Pacific region, Roman Schaefer, but a few bottles of the local brew that had been stashed in the coach.

Factory tours

From Munich airport, it was a couple of hours to the Liebherr Factory in Kirchdorf – a production plant for excavators. Although jet-lag had set in amongst the travellers, bleary-eyes were prized open both by the sheer scale of the factory and the expertise demonstrated by the workers on the floor. Long serving Liebherr employees, these dudes were artisans rather than just technicians.

Liebherr develops and manufactures all its own drive and control systems in house – and the scale of the factory set against the precision of the work was awesome. Meanwhile the tiny original home in which Hans Liebherr, the founder of the company, lived has been retained on-site, perhaps as testament to that old adage “from little things brain-bogglingly enormous things become incredibly vast and/or multi-national corporations.”

The second Liebherr Factory was similarly impressive – this being Liebherr Ochenhausen, the source of Liebherr’s domestic fridge and freezer supply. Not, it should be said, on paper the most rock-n-roll of experiences: and yet my mind was duly blown.

Here is an aerial view of the factory – and you’ll be staggered to know I didn’t take this picture myself.

Liebherr run a dynamic operation: modern and efficiently systemised, yet informed by flexibility and, well, that ol’ thing we can sentimentally refer to as “the human touch”. Necessarily flexible, of course, ‘cos their products have to be adapted for different markets, such as the Asia-Pacific region.

Roman Schaefer says of their fridge manufacture: “Customisations are all done in the factory – we have an acute sense of where each fridge is going and what different climate conditions they have to withstand. As the only products in the domestic market we manufacture, we try to be the most innovative provider of fridge, freezers and wine fridges out there – emphasising design that follows functionality.”

Highlights included the soundproof testing laboratories, the humidity controlled environments, and watching the immensely powerful yet precise hydraulic factory machinery strut their stuff. I’m also a sucker for watching robots test doors by opening and shutting them repeatedly … and the warehouse was part-epic cardboard-box metropolis and part-homage to the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Lunch, meanwhile, was a visit to the Liebherr Factory Canteen – which included a serving of tuna pasta which looked like it was bussed in from outer space and an outstanding testament to the lower intestines of the German worker.

Schnitzel odyssey

Thus endeth two days of factory touring – and on with the beer and schnitzel infused fun times throughout Germany and Austria. At the risk of boring you with the details or alarming anyone, we’ll summarise … and reassure you that was strictly above board and professional. Everyone kept their extremities metaphorically within the moving vehicle at all times.

Highlights included a boat cruise on Lake Constance, accompanied by a somewhat misty view of the Alps, a visit to the beautiful town of Innsbruck and a horse-drawn carriage ride (with courtesy schnapps) to an alpine hut where we were wined and dined … and serenaded by what I can only describe as the leading two-piece covers band in Austria featuring Chopper Read on accordion (at left).

The food, meanwhile, was – uh – uniformly hearty. Rumours that German food has a tendency to be somewhat on the heavy-side turned out to be well-founded. Ample amounts of meat and potato. Apple fritters with inch thick pastry. And schnitzel, schnitzel, schnitzel, ye gods. More often than not, a night out left me feeling like I was digesting a small, if (it must be emphasised) delicious, volkswagen.

The Interalpen Hotel

Possibly the highlight of the trip was a two night stay at the Interalpen Hotel. Owned and operated by the Liebherr group, the Interalpen is a five star, marble and wood-panel encrusted vision of splendour set amongst a pristine alpine wilderness. On a bright day – it looks something like this:

It was, needless to say, not exactly like crashing for a night at the local Best Western.

Upping the ante on the concept of “palatial”, the resort comes complete with a gym, sauna(s), pools and spas, several dining rooms and an indoor golf centre.

My room was almost ridiculous in size – and had two double beds, a full lounge suite and an immense bathroom (with bidet, kids). I thoroughly enjoyed it … without, it must be said, ever losing the feeling it was more suitable for a party of German swingers than a lonely AOL employee.

Even the breakfast was epic: a cavalcade of museli, yoghurt, bread, cheese and (made on the spot according to our individual specifications) omelettes.

What can I say? – it had a certain edge over the grimy way-side motels and backpacker hostels I normally doss down in.

Oktoberfest

The tour concluded with a visit to Oktoberfest – a little known Bavarian festival that attracts some six million peeps or so to the city of Munich – congregating en masse to ride a tidal wave of beer.

At first sight – on a Monday night, no-less – the festival represented some kind of bacchanalian nightmare: an amped-up Royal Easter Show, a queasy celebration of excess at the expense of the public loos. Not to worry, however. A few beers later and we were more than happy to go with the flow – even if that was heading in the direction of the gutter.

Proceedings did start out in a reasonably civilised fashion. As you can see, the first couple of gigantic steins went down relatively easily and with a minimum of fuss …

 …. with the next few after that proving to have slightly more impact …

The evening thus ensued with a certain amount of sweaty bonhomie – not to mention a liberal helping of out-of-focus camera work. A neat way to end the tour, to be sure, and more than a few beers were raised in Liebherr’s honour.

Big hugs to Roman Schaefer and Stephanie De Lariza for the photos – and hearty thankyou to Liebherr for their generous hospitality. Any chance of having us back? No, didn’t think so.