User:Ritter Concept/Ritter (dental company)

Ritter AG in Karlsruhe-Durlach produced and sold equipment for dentists, in particular dentists' chairs, instrument holders, spittoons, X-ray units, suction units and equipment for dental laboratories. The company existed from 1924 to 1990. Parts of the program are still continued today under the company name and the brand "Ritter" in new companies and shareholders.

Founded by Frank Ritter
In 1867, the then 26-year-old Frank Ritter (* 1841, † 1928) emigrated from Astheim to the United States of America. As a trained cabinetmaker, he founded a furniture factory in New York State in 1880. After initially building only instrument cabinets, in 1887 Frank Ritter created a completely new type of two-telescope dental treatment chair with an oil pump mechanism, for which he was awarded a gold medal at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The success prompted him to further develop products such as an electric drill, an instrument carrier or a dental X-ray machine.

In 1906, he moved his company, Ritter Corp. to Rochester and became a leading manufacturer of dental medical equipment. In 1952, the company established an X-ray tube manufacturing operation. Between the years 1957 and 1967, Ritter grew into a major corporation for dental items through the purchase and merger of 10 companies.

Ritter AG, Durlach
The idea of setting up a factory in Germany as well was put into practice by Frank Ritter's two daughters. In 1924, they acquired the company Arnold Bieber AG in Durlach, which was not yet part of Karlsruhe at the time, initially kept the name Ritter-Bieber AG and produced equipment for dentists for the European market. From 1927, they changed their name to Ritter AG. Ritter AG employed up to 860 workers in the 1960s.

Sybron Corporation
In 1966, the parent company in the USA, by now called Ritter-Pfaudler, took over Sybron Corporation of Rochester. The Ritter family then lost its entrepreneurial influence. The holding company in the USA was renamed Sybron Corporation. As a result of a persistent loss situation, Sybron gave up the production of dental medical equipment in the United States in 1985. In the course of this, the loss-making subsidiaries in Germany, including Ritter AG, were also sold.

Ritter AG is for sale
At the end of 1985, Ritter AG still had 338 employees and 17 trainees. Ritter AG had been making persistent losses since the beginning of the 1980s. In 1983, sales still amounted to DM 84 million and the loss was DM 7 million; in 1984, sales plummeted to DM 47 million and the loss rose to DM 14.4 million. In 1985, sales fell again to DM 31.4 million and the loss to DM 9.5 million.

The reasons for this were inefficient production and excessive vertical integration. A cost containment law for hospitals and dentists as well as a decline in newly established dentists led to a drop in sales. Cost structures were not adjusted. A "Compoflex D 222" dental treatment unit, which was only launched on the market in 1981, had defects, particularly in the electronics, which led to a large number of complaints and returns.

Sybron Corp. therefore wanted to part with Ritter AG in a face-saving manner and was prepared to pay a negative purchase price. By an agreement dated March 2, 1985, Sybron transferred all shares in Ritter AG to Weng Rai Trading Ltd, Hong Kong, and to German American Property Corporation, New York. From there, the shares went to Torsten Griess-Nega and his family, who already held an interest in Zahnfabrik Bad Nauheim. No purchase price was paid for the shares. In return, Sybron undertook to bear continuing losses of the company of up to DM 500,000 per month for a period of 8 months after the transfer. However, this payment was conditional on Ritter AG not filing for bankruptcy or composition.

Ritter AG under Griess-Nega
After the takeover of the share package, Griess-Nega was appointed sole member of the Executive Board for a period of 5 years. A new 3-member Supervisory Board was also appointed. Griess-Nega did not have a functioning restructuring concept; nor did he succeed in injecting new capital or loans into the company. The monthly losses were higher than the subsidies of DM 500,000 provided by Sybron, which were paid on time.

First bankruptcy
After Sybron had paid the last monthly subsidy of DM 500,000 in December 1985, Torsten Griess-Nega filed an application with the Karlsruhe District Court on January 15, 1986, on behalf of Ritter AG for the opening of court composition proceedings to avert bankruptcy. The Stuttgart lawyer Volker Grub was appointed provisional administrator of the arrangement.

The Local Court set the Company a deadline of four weeks to submit documents for the opening of composition proceedings. After the Board of Management failed to submit these, the District Court opened the follow-up bankruptcy proceedings on March 17, 1986. Grub was also appointed as bankruptcy trustee.

The reorganization concept
Ritter AG had developed three new products during this phase, a patient chair, an instrument holder and a spittoon under the name Dialog 190 E. The old products were to be replaced. The bankruptcy trustee arranged for Dialog 190 E to be presented at the International Dental Show in Cologne in April 1986. The upcoming dental show caused many dentists to hold back their orders. The presentation of the new equipment was a great success. The technology, but also the design, were convincing and led to increased orders from dentists.

The bankruptcy trustee abandoned the uneconomical production of X-ray equipment, surgical lights and equipment for dental laboratories. The production processes were optimized, the vertical range of manufacture was reduced and subcontracted to other companies. The electroplating department was dissolved. The workforce was reduced to 248 employees.

Ritter GmbH Dental equipment
In order to avoid the stigma of bankruptcy, the bankruptcy trustee founded a sales company under the name Ritter GmbH Dentaleinrichtungen, which commenced operations as early as April 4, 1986 and was initially only responsible for sales. The personnel with production and administration remained with Ritter AG.

Grub appointed Bodo Hintze for technology and Franz Hermann Vogt for administration and sales as managing directors of Ritter GmbH Dentaleinrichtungen. Only one year later, after the necessary staff reduction had taken place, Ritter GmbH took over the entire staff of Ritter AG on April 1, 1987. The real estate, business equipment and brands remained with Ritter AG. The Ritter brand with a semicircle and a dot in front of the lettering was protected in Germany, the USA, Japan and 19 other western countries.

In the search for investors for Ritter GmbH Dentaleinrichtungen, the insolvency administrator negotiated with interested parties from Germany and abroad. The negotiations extended over 4 years. The new products were well received by the dental profession. Annual sales between 1986 and 1990 leveled off at DM 28 to 32 million during this period.

Sold to Bodo Hintze
The best continuation solution was a management buyout with Bodo Hintze. He obtained financing for the takeover from Commerzbank, Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg and Industriekreditbank. On May 1, 1990, Hintze took over Ritter GmbH Dentaleinrichtungen as well as the business equipment and brands from Ritter AG. Hintze acquired the company premises at Killisfeldstrasse 62 in Karlsruhe-Durlach at the same time as the newly founded Hintze GmbH & Co. Medizintechnik KG.

End of First Bankruptcy
Grub ended the bankruptcy proceedings in 1992. Preferential claims amounting to DM 5 million were satisfied in full, while non-preferential claims amounting to DM 30 million received a payment quota of 40%.

Ritter GmbH Dental Equipment under Bodo Hintze
Reunification and the end of the Cold War opened up new markets for Ritter in the East. In the new German states, more than 500 dentists set up their own practices. Hintze opened sales offices in the U.S., France and Slovakia, increasing sales to DM 67 million in 1991 and reporting a profit of DM 8.4 million. In 1992, sales were DM 73 million and profits DM 2.1 million. The workforce grew again to 300 employees and production was designed for 2,000 dental units per year.

The upswing was short-lived. In 1994, sales fell to DM 36.5 million and the loss amounted to DM 13 million. The cause was the "Seehofer effect": the then Minister of Health envisaged cost-cutting measures for dentists as well. In the summer of 1995, the banks stopped financing the company, Ritter GmbH Dentaleinrichtungen became insolvent and filed for insolvency with the Karlsruhe District Court on August 17, 1995, which led to the opening of bankruptcy proceedings on September 1, 1995. Lawyer and auditor Eberhard Braun, Achern, was appointed as bankruptcy trustee.

Braun could only order the closure of the plant. The insolvency proceedings were terminated in 2005. Only the preferential Class I creditors, who amounted to DM 5.7 million, received a quota of 23%.

Ritter-IBW-Dentalsysteme GmbH
As early as October 14, 1995, Braun sold the repair and spare parts service as well as the service and production program to Ritter-IBW-Dentalsysteme GmbH, a company founded on October 12, 1995 by Hans Wünschel, Jockgrim. The new company rented premises at Killisfeldstraße 64 in Karlsruhe-Durlach and immediately started operations with 11 employees taken over from Ritter. In a few months, the workforce grew to around 50 employees. Wünschel changed the company concept, outsourced the complex production processes to subcontractors and limited himself to the assembly of dental treatment units. After a bumpy start-up of the company in Karlsruhe, he moved the headquarters and production to Zwönitz near Chemnitz in 1996, where he already had an entrepreneurial background. He was able to rebuild the group of companies there to 140 employees. He succeeded in advancing the digitalization of the dental treatment unit.

Third bankruptcy
In Zwönitz, Ritter-IBW-Dentalsysteme GmbH also ran into payment difficulties in 2000. They were also hit by the austerity measures of the Minister of Health, Horst Seehofer. Managing Director Hans Wünschel filed for insolvency proceedings at Chemnitz Local Court on October 27, 2000. The insolvency proceedings were opened on January 1, 2001. The insolvency administrator continued to run the company and reduced the workforce to 46 employees. The local court appointed the Chemnitz lawyer Frank-Rüdiger Scheffler as insolvency administrator. In September 2001, he sold the company's assets, including the Ritter brand, to a rescue company under the name Ritter Concept GmbH, based in Zwönitz.

Ritter Concept GmbH
Ritter Concept GmbH took over all 46 employees from Ritter-IBW-Dentalsysteme GmbH. The founding shareholders were Olpe Jena GmbH with a 46% stake, Rösch AG of Berlin with 44% and clinic srl. in Imola with 10%. The first two managing directors were Olaf Reddersen from Jena and Roberto Beccafogli, Imola. Rösch AG provided the sales manager in the form of Werner Schmitz. The newly founded company specialized in dentists' chairs, work lamps and water dispensers as well as other equipment for dentists.

Über das Vermögen der Rösch AG wurde am 1. März 2003 ein Insolvenzverfahren eröffnet und der Geschäftsbetrieb eingestellt. Am 8. Juli 2003 schied Olaf Reddersen als Geschäftsführer aus, dafür wurde Werner Schmitz, Biberach, Geschäftsführer und rückte auch in die Position eines Gesellschafters. Der Mitgeschäftsführer Roberto Beccafogli schied endgültig am 29. Oktober 2008 als Geschäftsführer aus.

Ritter Concept GmbH again uses the "Ritter with semicircle and dot" trademark originally registered for Ritter AG. Showrooms exist in Biberach, Cologne and Kolbingen. At the beginning of 2018, the company's headquarters and production site were relocated to Biberach an der Riß.

The company continues to exist successfully. Werner Schmitz sees Ritter Concept GmbH as the successor to the Ritter Corp. founded by Frank Ritter in the USA in 1887 and emphasizes the strengths of an owner-managed company.

Weblinks

 * Official Webseite
 * Grave of Frank Ritter at findagrave.com
 * Frank Ritter at the Société française d'histoire de l'art dentaire