Birgit rodler receives state medal

After the title "entrepreneur of the year and the entry of the mannsflur handicraft business into the finals for the state prize "winner 2012 the bavarian ministry of economics now also honored birgit rodler and the A creativ embroidery company. The state medal is intended to honor the people who have advanced bavaria and its economy, said state minister zeil in the ludwig erhard festival hall of the bavarian ministry of economics in munich.

"Community achievement"
"your success is a joint effort. Therefore, accept the state medal on behalf of the people you have supported", zeil emphasized and in his laudatory speech went into detail about the founding of the company and birgit rodler’s commitment in 2008: "when your employer at the time, the meinel flag factory in marktleugast, had to file for insolvency, you and over 40 other employees lost their jobs as garment workers. But they have shown great entrepreneurial courage. Convinced of the competitiveness of their products, they immediately founded the company A creativ-stickerei together with their sister, a close cousin and a manager."

In the middle of the crisis year 2009, rodler and her colleagues acquired the insolvency assets of her old employer, using all their savings and giving up their homes as collateral, zeil recalled. "In order to win back and keep orders, things had to move fast, so they temporarily started producing badges, flags and pennants in their home garage."

Clever niche strategy
thanks to a clever niche strategy, the manufactory has mastered the way out of the crisis. "Her products are world-famous. For example, they produce the pennants for every international match of the german national soccer team, make high-quality carnival caps and hand-embroidered flags in addition to the official DFB pennants. 80 percent of the richly decorated caps of the kolner karnevalsverein come from their embroidery", said the minister of economy.

"They have successfully focused on quality and good craftsmanship, created 23 full-time jobs in the region, and thus given many of their former colleagues new career prospects in the upper franconian towns of marktleugast and grafengehaig. With a high sense of social responsibility, they ran their company in a partnership and family-friendly manner."