Munich-based ZOCH Verlag is a new member of the SIMBA DICKIE GROUP

There has been a change of ownership at ZOCH GmbH, a company famous for its numerous and extraordinary board games, for which it has won many awards. As of 1.2.2010 the Fürth-based SIMBA DICKIE GROUP will acquire the successful games publishing company from Munich.

“The firm of ZOCH GmbH with its head office in Munich is to continue and be developed further under the umbrella of NORIS GAMES. With this investment, the SIMBA DICKIE GROUP plans to consolidate and take the games sector into the future,” Manfred Duschl, CFO of the SIMBA DICKIE GROUP, announced at the company’s annual press conference on Thursday evening in Fürth.

To maintain continuity of personnel and quality of content, Albrecht Werstein, managing director of ZOCH Verlag, will “continue to work on the brand”. He knows that his “child will be in the right hands at the SIMBA DICKIE GROUP in the future too”. New visions are to be tackled; the fascination in the game is to live on with the bigger partner. Albrecht Werstein and Oswald Hertlein see in the new collaboration the opportunity for ZOCH not only to realise individual game ideas in future, but also to create “new innovative concepts for free time and leisure and to bring entertainment into the living room in a playful way.”
 
The synergies that result through the new state of affairs also secure the business premises in Munich. It will remain a think tank, creativity workshop and marketing site, while the goods procurement, logistics and sales of the ZOCH product range will henceforth be in the hands of managing director Oswald Hertlein at NORIS GAMES. “Our aims for the future of ZOCH consist in reinforcing our strengths. More editorial work is to occur in Munich, leaving our heads free for more creativity,” Oswald Hertlein believes.
 

About ZOCH Verlag:
Founded in 1987 by namesake Klaus Zoch and managing director Albrecht Werstein, ZOCH Verlag has continued to prosper and grow over the years. The high-quality product range consists of over 40 children’s games, family games and games of skill, among them the German top-sellers “Bausack” and “Zicke Zacke Hühnerkacke”. Numerous awards and distinctions like “the Game of the Year” (2002 Villa Paletti, 2005 Niagara) are evidence of the great attractiveness of the ZOCH games and the feeling of the developers for the buyers’ wishes.