From scales to health control: 150 years of Soehnle

1868 is the year some outstanding German personalities were born. These include the developer August Horch, founder of Audi, or Germany’s only chess world champion Emanuel Lasker. The fact that exactly 150 years ago a businessman from tranquil Murrhardt, close to Stuttgart, would achieve fame worldwide was not foreseeable at the time. Wilhelm Soehnle was the name of the businessman who started to build the first scales in a small workshop. 150 years later, the “Soehnle” brand is among the leading providers of bathroom and kitchen scales and is celebrating its grand anniversary. Since its foundation, the Soehnle brand has placed value on first-class quality and reliability, ease of use and outstanding design. In its anniversary year 2018, the brand is rediscovering itself and is starting the largest product push in is history. With the introduction of new product categories like blood pressure gauges, fitness trackers and air purifiers, Soehnle is creating new sales potentials. The brand isthereby also highlighting its philosophy “Life in Balance” and fully meets its claim. With the high-quality and innovative new products, people will be supported in keeping fit and consciously living more healthily.

Soehnle’s competences lie in the field of “measurement” -since 2017 the brand has taken a steady path of further development and has entered into other market segments besides scales. The new business areas combine the themes of measurement with the display of body and nutritional data for a“consciously healthier life”. With fitness trackers, blood pressure gauges, air purifiers and analysis scales, Soehnle today is a brand which serves the health and fitness sector with innovative products. Consumers can set goals with support from Soehnle,constantly review them with products and thereby evaluation their personal status. This helps people to organise their lives in healthier ways.

An integral part of the new Soehnle world is the Soehnle Connect App. With this, the smartphone becomes a helpful companion to achieve personal health goals. Once installed, the App connects all Soehnle Connect Products from the various areas of life and delivers information about weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), calorific and sleep values, pulse and blood pressure values and much more. Besides that, the free App provides information and tips about a conscious and healthy lifestyle.

Since 2001, Soehnle has been owned by Leifheit -known as a pioneer for efficient floor cleaning, laundry care and kitchen aids with registered office in Nassau. In fiscal year 2016, Leifheit achieved group sales of 237.1 million euros and employs about 1,000 employees. The company can look back on more than 200 million scales sold and numerous prizes for innovation and design.

In 1984, Soehnle was the world’s leading producer of consumer scales with annual production of 5.5 million scales. Today, Soehnle is number 1 for bathroom and kitchen scales in Germany. Soehnle has also taken a top position in other European countries like Austria, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Soehnle developed the first digital kitchen scales more than 30 years ago. Today, purchasers include the Page kitchen scale models with patented sensor touch operation, as well asthe classic kitchen scales, the Culina Pro -one of the most popular analogue kitchen scales of all time, without which it is hard to imagine a kitchen. In total, 5 million of these scales have been sold worldwide.

Like before, Soehnle is investing in the development of new scale technologies. As a result, there are products available in the anniversary year with the potential to become best sellers: The Page Aqua Proof is the first dishwasher-safe kitchen scales from Soehnle. After use, it can be cleaned with a water jet or in the dishwasher without hesitation. The high-quality electronics remain fully protected.

Real innovations also include the new body analysis scales from Soehnle. The scales in the Shape Sense Connect range measure the proportion of body fat, water and muscle mass through bio-impedance. The information also provides BMI and daily calorific needs. All data are stored during the measurement process and sent to the Soehnle App via Bluetooth. The App then delivers clear presentations of personal measurement values. It is simple and intuitive to operate and connect with Google Fit and Apple Health.

Soehnle has never developed itself so diversely as in its anniversary year. The new scales determine a great deal of information and thereby deliver an optimal base for health control. Using this core expertise, Soehnle has invested in two new product categories, which also concern the reliable measurement of body-related data. In October 2017, the first fitness tracker by Soehnle was introduced, which wins over with excellent value for money. The centrepiece of the tracker is the Soehnle Connect App, which delivers graphic processing for data control.

The second product category which Soehnle introduced in 2017 is blood pressure gauges. More than 20 million German have high blood pressure. In order to protect the people from a heart attack or a stroke, doctors recommend checking blood pressure regularly. For this purpose, Soehnle recently brought the blood pressure gauge Systo Monitor onto the market. Here too the user’s measured data is displayed, stored and transferred to the Soehnle Connect App via Bluetooth for Premium products simply and easily, guaranteeing long-term control at home. Blood pressure patients can then very easily provide the treating doctor with the stored data at their next appointment.

This ensures the air is almost completely free from pathogens and mould. Not only the air but also quality of life is therefore improved within your own four walls.

150 years of Soehnle also means moving with the Zeitgeist. The current product push expands Soehnle’s expertise and portfolio into three new categories. These include the measuring and storing of data which deliver people with important information about their health and fitness Soehnle is therefore active in a sector which greatly affects people. According to the 2016 Values Index, published by the market research institute TNS Infratest, the most important subject for Germans by some way is efficienthealth care.

Health care does not mean avoiding illness, but above all maintaining your own body’s performance and quality of life into old age -if not to even improve it. Those who want to achieve this state also require efficient checks for their health and active program because this makes success visible and therefore provides motivation to live healthily, take part in sports regularly and to nourish oneself which as much variety and health as possible. In this way, people can achieve optimal results for “Life in Balance”. This is the brand’s claim and the message which Soehnle has stood for for almost 150 years.