Georg Essl III. was horrified at how much the children had to carry on their backs. Kilos of books, notebooks and writing instruments in school bags, which – often made of robust, brown leather – weighed two kilograms when empty. So the entrepreneur and inventor from Hermagor in Carinthia got to work. At the end of the 1960s, he created a “feather-light, body-friendly school bag” based on modern backpacks. Instead of leather, the new school bags – and a little later also new school backpacks – were made of tear-resistant and waterproof nylon material. And they were brightly colored. A German family of entrepreneurs entered the business; The school bags became a bestseller under a cool name: Scout.
At its peak, ten million such Scouts were reportedly sold; the brand was considered the market leader. Recently, however, business has been weakening; instead of Scout, Ergobag is now the country’s leading school bag manufacturer. Now Germany’s largest toy company Simba Dickie wants to ensure a renaissance of the Scout brand. For an undisclosed amount, the Fürth family company bought the Scout brand, in association with its sister brands Derdiedas and 4You.
On January 31st they will become the property of the Simba-Dickie Group, which will take over the remaining inventory in addition to the trademark rights from May onwards. “We want to fill Scout with new life and further develop it,” says Florian Sieber, managing partner of the Simba-Dickie Group.
The Scout brand most recently belonged to the Nuremberg Steinmann family of entrepreneurs, and is now taking over another family business from neighboring Fürth, Simba Dickie. The Siebers have been collecting failing brands for decades in order to successfully revive them. The best examples are the bobby car manufacturer Big or the model railway icon Märklin, which is not integrated into the group but also belongs to the family. The Simba-Dickie Group also includes the subsidiary Undercover, which has so far focused on the mass business with children’s backpacks and pencil cases, which are licensed products with motifs from the world of Barbie, “Super Mario”, “Harry Potter”, “Frozen” or “Star Wars” are printed on them. Scout bags, on the other hand, are sold exclusively through specialist retailers, to which Undercover gains access. “We have been underrepresented in specialist retailers so far and we want to change that,” says Florian Sieber. Undercover will “certainly get a boost” from the acquisition.
The takeover is a so-called asset deal. Simba Dickie only takes the brand, but no production or employees. However, according to Siebers, new positions will be created at Undercover as part of the takeover.