130 Years Bretz

In the 1990s, Bretz made its most daring course change to date. With brothers Norbert and Hartmut now at the helm, they spun the wheel and took the business off in an entirely new direction. Leaving the company’s take on rustic oak ensembles in their wake, the duo embraced fanciful, gaily coloured upholstered pieces with sumptuous shapes.

“It was, in a nutshell, nuts,” Norbert recalls. “But our father supported us all the way. I guess this willingness to motivate each other is part of the Bretz DNA.” The Wildcat and Zebra velours put Bretz on the map. “We even had paws and hooves cast to match. No-one had ever done anything like it.”

Now confirmed as a premium brand in the 2000s, Bretz became synonymous with passionate flights of fancy. Something neatly summed up by a buyer from Harrods: “Oh, how funky!” From then on, every design was an invitation to embark on an exquisitely personal, fantastical voyage full of boundless adventure.

Carolin Kutzera, the figurehead of the youngest generation, is both a design visionary and brand strategist. As contours become rounder and softer, the pieces also offer a greater degree of modularity that lets them adapt to a wide variety of spaces. Thanks to Carolin’s background in fashion and her fondness for colours and fabrics, covers are now a higher priority in the design process. “The cover material is the clothing for the sofa and so it’s central to its character,” Carolin enthuses. The look and feel of each fabric—its haptics and hues—inspires individual emotions and impressions."

To celebrate its 130th anniversary, Bretz has reimagined its iconic Wildcat material as a new sofa. With its rounded, organic contours and leopard-skin pattern, Balaao conjures up memories of the optimistic and eccentric joie de vivre of the 2000s while extending an enticing invitation to indulge in a little fun and frolic. The comfortable half-moon backrest also helps one to keep one’s cool when the chair takes a head-spinning turn around its own axis.

For 130 years, Bretz has shown how tradition paired with change is the perfect duo to dance the design tango. What about the future? “We will certainly be keeping our production in Germany,” Carolin promises. Modernised buildings and an optimised energy footprint are proof of the regular investments Bretz has made to its premises and processes. The new photovoltaic system supplies all of the electricity needed by production and admin alike. The modernisation programme was also aimed at making the working environment more appealing.

Carolin: “We want to motivate young people to learn the artisan’s noble trade and join us in making our inspirational projects a reality. Alongside our modern approach to team leadership, we’re also improving in many other areas as well. We’re working to include more aspects of sustainability in our products, and researching new materials and methods that guarantee durability without compromising on our unique visual appeal.”Bretz is already deploying advanced technology that gets its designs closer to the customer in various digital formats. As one example, these tools can be used to place the typically bold and many-coloured Bretz creations into the customer’s own environment and so provide an initial impression.

What will never change is the Bretz promise of superlative quality, velours galore, modularity, seats that go extradeep and an abiding interest in dreaming up undreamt-of ideas. And one principle above all else: