Holiday feeling as a business idea: The Munich label “Motel a Miio” – Munich

Laura Castien comes up the stairs with a bowl and a vase. Flowers are tucked under her arm: a rose-colored protea and a twig with dark blue berries that go perfectly with the dots in the vase that you brought with you. Like the bowl, it is a piece from our own ceramic collection. She puts the bouquet in Anna von Hellberg’s hand and says: Now she just stood in the driveway and turned on the hazard warning lights. “That fits,” replies Hellberg, who lives here with her husband and children. “We just keep an eye on the road.” From the oval dining table at which Castien zu Hellberg sits down, this works very well. And Castien will keep raising her head for the next few hours and looking down through the double windows of her friend’s old apartment. Finding a parking space in the middle of Schwabing is a matter of luck, even on a normal Tuesday morning. Otherwise, Castien and Hellberg cannot complain about too little luck.

It all started almost exactly five years ago with her ceramic label Motel a Miio. You now have a small anniversary, but above all, a really big success. They have opened 14 of their own stores in Germany, two in Austria and three in Switzerland since 2016. Just a few days ago, a shop was added to the Huidenstraat in Amsterdam. Perhaps currently one of the most beautiful shopping areas in Europe. Extremely hip, with lots of small shops.

So there are now 20 Motel-a-Miio stores, and more are planned. The Munich company founders think of France, the Benelux countries and England. Castien dreams of a branch in New York. She lived there for four years, studied at the Parsons School of Design and then worked.

The two women have known each other since they were 18. One (Castien) is brown-haired and towers over the other, the blonde (Hellberg), by almost half a head. They are friends who respectfully allow themselves to be talked out of them and who look quite openly and often in the eyes. You laugh a lot. “We complement each other so well, that’s probably the explanation for our success,” says Castien. “We have the same values,” says Hellberg. Family life is important to them, eating and socializing, drinking a wine, traveling together, culture. Both studied graphic design. But that was a while ago. Castien and Hellberg are now 40, married and have two children each. In Hellberg’s living room there is an XXL sofa on which four adults and four children can lounge.

Emphasizing these common values ​​is part of their story because the business idea came about while on a family vacation in Portugal. Bathing in the sea, building sandcastles, trying out restaurants together – that’s how they passed the days back then. One evening the fish, the salad, the olives are brought to many different ceramic plates. The women are enthusiastic, ask the waiter and the next day go to the store where the restaurant gets its dishes. “We were completely freaked out, we were in Pottery Heaven,” says Hellberg, raving about the colors, shapes, and the robust yet elegant material of the pieces.

Back in Munich, they planned a pop-up sale on Hans-Sachs-Strasse with the beautiful goods that they had brought from Portugal. At that time, every family invested 2,000 euros. “We thought, in the worst case, we’d have to sell things off at flea markets,” says Castien. “Shortly before that, I really had trouble with the idea,” says Hellberg. 2000 euros, that was quite a lot of money for her, too much to waste the sum. And then almost everything went away within a day. When a customer asked if they could get more of these great cups and plates, the two friends answered spontaneously: yes. “A pop-up sale with people standing in line is a proof of concept,” says Hellberg. In any case, proof of the right instinct for a trend.

After this initial success, the two women began researching where this type of ceramic is made in Portugal. They came up with their own shapes and colors. A lot with mint, blue and pink tones. Then they traveled to the manufactories with their husbands and then only three children. “We had no idea how such dishes are made,” says Hellberg. “We had to learn a lot.” Some cups are poured, some plates and bowls are turned on the potter’s wheel. The glaze makes it so special: the light shades with their speckles and irregularities, the thick stripes that are created by different color baths. Each part comes out of the oven a little differently. And yet everything somehow fits together.

Open detailed view

In winter 2016/17 they started their own production under the name Motel a Miio. The logo is stamped on the back of each piece. The M is connected with the following Is. This is supposed to symbolize waves, the water of the Algarve. And what does Motel a Miio mean? “A souvenir from vacation, from me for you,” explains Hellberg.

It’s a made-up word. Even if it sounds like it, it’s not Portuguese. They just liked the sound. Every color, every shape has a name: Nuno is the bulbous vase, Farol, the small floor lamp, the turquoise series with the lively interior pattern is called Alcachofra. In Sendlinger Strasse, where there is one of the Munich shops, a hotel has opened under the name Mio. “We hadn’t thought of anything when they asked us,” says Hellberg. They are now a little tired of having to turn down room orders.

The dishes go perfectly with Mediterranean cuisine as well as Asian cuisine. Tapas look just as valuable on it as sushi or salad with papaya strips. Restaurateurs who want to look trendy and individual have not relied on white porcelain for a long time. At least complement them with colored ceramics. For example, in Munich’s Hey Luigi or Café Kranich you can find the wave logo on the back of the dishes. It goes well with places that have bowls on their menu, dhal, hummus and lukewarm fried potato salad. So something for every taste. “I think we manage to convey that first feeling that we felt back then in Portugal with the dishes,” says Castien.

They also work very skillfully on this mood of vacation and well-being. On the website you can see the two women on the beach, happy and carefree. “At the beginning we didn’t really think about it that much, we took one step at a time,” says Castien and Hellberg adds: “We have created a lifestyle product from a dusty grandma issue.” Crockery that emphasizes individuality, with wooden tables and chairs that have been gathered together, with cotton clothes and thick fisherman’s sweaters.

In the meantime, the husbands have also joined the company. One brings know-how in business administration, the other ideas from the creative sector. Hellberg was the only one of the four who gave up a permanent position. She was art director at a large international lingerie company for ten years. “We do not come from founding families. This is all new territory for us,” she says. They share the childcare, and the grandmothers also spend some afternoons in front of the schools or the crèche.

Motel a Miio now has almost 200 employees and there are still some positions to be filled. The label has grown extremely quickly. Despite Corona and although the shops had to close for weeks. Online trading has bridged this time. The return to home and cooking for small groups has probably actually helped the company a lot. The pieces are in a price range that is not free, but affordable for many. Pasta plates, for example, cost around 24 euros. They send worldwide from their headquarters in Allach. In 2021 gross sales were 15 million euros, this year it should be 50 percent more, Hellberg estimates. They have had an investor on board since April. “We were at a point where it was clear: either we are going full throttle or we will be overtaken at some point,” says Laura Castien and takes a deep breath. After a short break, Anna von Hellberg then says: “The competition is not sleeping.” And they both laugh.