Wedding of the year!
Welcome to a new era! And we have a joyful announcement to make After much deliberation, the three well-known companies Hässlers, Hospa and Profilskaparen have decided to join together on the basis of their common love for printing, packaging innovation and bookbinding. The newlyweds will continue to use the common name HÄSSLERS CZ.
You read that right. After many years during which we have experienced "heaven & hell" together many times during urgent, complex and often extremely demanding assignments for clients from different parts of the world, we have decided to deepen our relationship. For a long time now, we have been united with the Hospa and Profilskaparen brands by our love for the printing craft and our emphasis on craftsmanship and original solutions for every job. We all follow the latest technologies and processes, we even create our own, but we also share a common belief in the foundation of honest handcraft, without which nothing truly unique comes out of any modern machine. That's why, in the first legal polygamous marriage in the corporate world, we decided to join forces and create one big family.
Papermaking in Bystřice pod Hostýnem dates back to 1895, when the craft began to be honed under the tutelage of bookbinder Emil Navrátil. (The production under different names and "owners" survived the socialist era, revived after the revolution and a great team headed by Pavel Rada is still successfully operating today.) Just a few years after Emil, Knut Hässler opened his small library on Diabasgatan in Stockholm. Neither could have known that somewhere 1106 km as the crow flies there was a competitor with whom they would embark on a journey together in 2024. And even that would not have happened if in the intervening years of 1982 Hakan Mauritz Wigerman had not set up a printing products business in the suburbs of Stockholm, which his son Andreas would turn into a major player in the Scandinavian market in the new millennium under the name Profilskaparen.
And what led to our union today? It was 2017, frost, snow and we decided to buy Knut Hässler's historic workshop. We moved the hellishly heavy 19th century bookbinding machines from Sweden to the Czech Republic in four trucks, four people and four days. It was hell, but we couldn't have done it without them - the equipment is the basis for the quality of our work. We then continued with the brand in the Swedish market. But then came the covid. To say it didn't go well would be even more optimistic. So one key evening, during the toughest quarantine period, we were sitting in Letná, deciding whether we should just close up shop. The borders were closed and the Swedish market was at a low point anyway. But Jitka was heartbroken. "We have great products, the whole family gave it their all! Let's go to the Czech market. It is impossible that there is no demand for quality goods here," she said at the time, changing the future of the company. It worked.
This marks the beginning of a new historic era, with three collaborating brands coming together as one. The expanded company will continue to offer the highest quality handmade work on proven and indestructible machines, in addition to state-of-the-art packaging equipment and a broad spectrum of printing production. Of course, we wouldn't give up our historic machines, so we've repeated the move after six years. Albeit for a shorter distance from Roblin to Hostýn, but in even colder weather and in three days.
And so here we are. Introducing the upgraded brand HÄSSLERS CZ, a joint venture of three experienced partners who link history. With offices in Prague and Stockholm and production in Bystřice pod Hostýnem. With lots of old bookbinding machines, but also a range of state-of-the-art equipment for packaging and a wide range of printing production. But most importantly with even more incredibly skilled hands of Dita, Lenka, David and others who are taking the craft forward!