THE SUCCESS OF A BUSINESS IDEA
When Michael Ganter and his partner launched their two-man business in 1995, the retail landscape was characterised by mergers of large department stores, resulting in inner cities becoming increasingly comparable and monotonous. However, this development offered classic retailers the opportunity to stand out from the mass of competitors by providing distinctive and individual furnishings for their brand shops. While shop planning had previously mainly been the province of shopfitting companies, more and more freelance architects were now offering creative ”brand presentation“ planning.
The two founders approached these architects with their own service concept: unlike classic shopfitting companies, which often had to maintain their own production facilities and were bound to their own shelf systems, Michael Ganter and his colleague only needed a desk and a computer to realise their shop concepts. Instead of setting up their own expensive production facilities, they turned to external suppliers and subcontractors and were thus able to fulfil individual wishes. The flexibility and speed of this approach coupled with a lean cost structure laid the foundations of the company’s success.
Today, the Ganter Group continues to work according to the same principle, albeit with more than 250 employees and a considerably broader range of services, which goes far beyond the original field of shop fitting and interior design. Ganter soon founded further branches for worldwide cooperation with major brands and developed into an international group of companies. The fact that Ganter succeeds time and again in opening up new business segments is primarily due to its employees, because customer loyalty in all fields can only be achieved through excellent service and communication at eye level.
