ZEM: Rise and Fall / Gurky: A Gardener Needs His Vehicle

Ruedi was satisfied and manufacturing could be started. We were able to win over the company Hoening from Stuttgart, who took over the production. All the aluminium parts were built by a supplier in Czechoslovakia, the Fort company. A first series of 200 vehicles was produced. We accompanied the start of production and also oversaw the main production as well. In addition, a smaller 2-seater ZEM was developed at the Hoening company, which was built with the same suppliers and many parts from our development. This vehicle also turned out quite well. Ruedi had big plans. He found an importer and investor in North America and at the same time moved the production to Taiwan, in order to be able to offer the vehicle in a larger series and at a lower price. Unfortunately, the plan did not work out: Ruedi ordered too few vehicles, which prompted the producer in Taiwan to supply the customer in the USA directly. Ruedi got entangled in discussions and negotiations and finally had to liquidate the ZEM company.

Addendum: Ruedi returned to his roots and combined his hobby, photography, with his profession, botany. With special large negatives, he photographed landscapes in a way I had never seen before. The first thing you see in his pictures is a landscape. But when you get closer to the picture, you see every leaf of every tree. Every blade of grass, every dandelion and every daisy is razor sharp. Looking at his pictures made me realize how many individual leaves and grasses there are in this world. Normally, we humans only ever see through a tunnel. Only just the centre of our field of vision is sharp. One of Ruedi’s pictures is still set up in our showroom. At first glance it looks like a normal landscape. The picture reveals its secret when you look at it up close. www.rudolffrey.com

Gurky: A gardener needs his vehicle
One day, a gardener from southern Germany stood in our doorway. He had brought us a basket of fresh vegetables:
"First you have to sow before you can harvest". So he had brought these fresh vegetables for us, because he wanted something from us. My interest was aroused. He told us how for the work for him and his team, especially while harvesting cucumbers, was becoming more and more tedious. He had a wheelbarrow that he had to push through the field. The more full the wheelbarrow, the more difficult it was to move it. He picks the cucumbers and puts them on the cart and has to go back and forth all the time. So he wanted a simple cart that would be motorized to make his work easier.

This was an ideal task for our designer Stefan Rittler. He decided on a tricycle, whereby the front steerable wheel was driven and pulled the cart behind it. A functional model was welded together and given to the gardener for testing. After some suggestions for improvement, the final vehicle was designed and built. We christened it "Gurky" in reference to the task to be accomplished. The gardener was highly satisfied. For him, the project had been worthwhile. For us, this Gurky was the prototype of the later eTrolley vehicles we built for the postal service and industry.

I learned from it:

• You have to sow before you can reap.
• To build up a company, you need persistence and a lot of luck.
• Even after a failure, life still continues.