With a bang into the new year

The forced break is over: for the first time since 2019, New Year's Eve fireworks can be sold in Germany. For three days, from December 29th to 31st, there will be firecrackers and rockets in retail, be it in supermarkets and discounters, drugstores or DIY stores.

The industry is hoping for business like it was before Corona. "The demand from the dealers was great," says Klaus Gotzen, Managing Director of the Association of the Pyrotechnic Industry (VPI). "Now it's up to the consumer."

In 2019, Germans spent a good 120 million euros on New Year's fireworks. Now it remains to be seen what impact the energy crisis and inflation will have on their willingness to buy firecrackers.

The chances of good business are not bad: According to a survey by the data portal Statista, fireworks are part of New Year's Eve for 21 percent of Germans.

The rockets and firecrackers currently come mainly from existing stocks, which could also affect the prices. "The warehouses were full because of the sales bans, so hardly any new fireworks were produced this year that could have had an impact on the sharp rise in raw material, energy and logistics costs," says Gotzen.

A look at the import figures also shows this: From January to September of this year, 81 percent fewer rockets, firecrackers and pyro batteries were imported than before Corona, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.

The fireworks mostly come from abroad. The suppliers had around three quarters of their goods manufactured across the border, reports the Association of the Pyrotechnic Industry.

According to the company, the market leader in Germany is the family company Weco from Eitorf in the south of North Rhine-Westphalia. With Comet from Bremerhaven and Nico based in Wuppertal, there are only two other larger manufacturers in Germany, plus a few small specialists.

A total of 23 companies are members of the industry association VPI. A crucial phase is now beginning for all of them. After the compulsory Corona break, companies are still ailing, but there is now no more state aid such as reimbursement of fixed costs or short-time work.

It therefore depends very much on the 2022 business. “More than 90 percent of our annual sales are generated in just three days before New Year's Eve. If this turnover is missing, the existential basis is missing, ”explains association boss Gotzen. The rest is sold with special permission throughout the year.

Despite the two sales bans, no companies have disappeared from the market so far, as the VPI reports. But the number of employees had to be reduced significantly: from 3,000 in 2019 to currently 2,000 to 2,500.

Weco, for example, had to close one of its three German plants: the production facility in Freiberg, Saxony, which belonged to VEB Pyrotechnik Silberhütte during the GDR era.

At the new beginning after the pandemic, the industry is now announcing that it wants to go green. The break was used and new products were developed that, for example, are plastic-free and completely biodegradable.

Environmentalists are skeptical. The German Environmental Aid, for example, which has been calling for a complete ban on fireworks for years with reference to air pollution, noise and waste, considers such promises to be "a particularly brazen form of 'greenwashing'", i.e. the attempt by companies to present themselves as more environmentally friendly than they are are.

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