Ravensburger.Values since 1883.

More than Good Games and Books. Ravensburger. Values since 1883.

Ravensburger, the brand of trust

The blue triangle is a seal of quality and a respected trademark with high brand awareness, especially in Germany. Be- hind the blue triangle, there is a family company that feels duty-bound to up-hold values that are gaining in import-ance today. Games, books and art and craft products from Ravensburger not only give pleasure, they are useful, too; they shape hearts and minds. At the same time, they communicate values our society needs: enjoyment, educa-tion and togetherness.

While having fun playing amusing games, children learn to think ahead, to accept losing graciously and even to obey rules. Art and craft products and puzzles foster concentration, imagin-ation and children’s joy of doing things

for themselves; picture books train the eye and help toddlers to grasp what they see and learn to talk. Reading aloud and shared activities create a sense of security and belonging. Ravensburger Spieleland, a theme park in a beautiful rural setting, brings families together to share the enjoyment of playing and learning.

Ravensburger offers only content of the highest quality. Our products are the result of our rich experience and of the very latest insights, of expertise and knowledge. Ravensburger always uses superior-quality materials. We put a great deal of loving care and atten-tion into the development and manu- facture of our products and ensure they satisfy our stringent quality and

Ravensburger values and what they stand for

safety standards before leaving our premises. What’s more, Ravensburger assumes responsibility for more than the products themselves.

In this little brochure, we would like to outline what quality and responsibility mean to us, the role they play in our life and how we constantly work to do them renewed justice.

Quality Content

More than Good Content: Meaning and Pleasure for Life

“Only the best” was the principle that guided the founding father of the Ravensburger publishing house from the very beginning. Otto Maier wanted to make toys to please heads, hands and hearts. The standard he set still applies today. One reason for the qual-ity of Ravensburger products is that we develop them ourselves. By far the majority of our games and books are Ravensburger originals – developed by our own editorial teams and produced to the highest quality with well-known authors and illustrators.

Passion and principles go to make good content

We see it as our abiding duty, nay our responsibility, to take a keen interest in the needs, wants and interests of the children, young people and adults for whom we make our products. What’s more, we observe trends and develop-ments, work side by side with teachers and child carers, and also consult recog- nised authorities. Products that cater to different age groups, superior con- tent and clear design – these are the fundamentals of Ravensburger quality. The themes and texts of our children’s products are adapted to the different stages in a child’s development, to the appropriate abilities and skills. This also applies to presentation – in other words, to the colours and shapes, pictures and design we use. A further guiding prin-c iple at Ravensburger is to reject all glori-fication of violence. Our games and books offer an opportunity for mean-ingful occupation and convey positive

values, such as a sense of community and family.

On the following pages we would like to give you an idea about our product development process for games at Ravensburger.

Creating a new game carefully and systematically

The first Ravensburger game was released in 1884 and since then we have developed thousands of games. Many of these have become international best sellers, such as “memory®” (1) or “Labyrinth”. Game development at Ravensburger is a syste-matic process overseen by experienced product managers. Following a thorough market analysis, the editorial depart-ment identifies the theme and target group for a new game, commissions a renowned inventor with its develop-ment and coordinates all further steps up to the finished product. The most important guarantors of quality are the Ravens burger principles – our mission to promote intellectual, social, emo-tional and creative skills – as well as the major care, passion and commitment (2) which go into creating our games.

Age appropriateness is one of the key elements in the development process. Theme and illustrations (3), game play and instructions are adapted for the designated age group. For example “Funny Bunny” for children ages four and up is age appropriately illustrated and includes simple instructions as well as a three dimensional aspect that helps develop the fine motor skills of young children (4). The Ravensburger product range offers a variety of games for every age group.

Before a new game arrives in stores, it first goes through numerous rounds of testing within the target age range. Continuous improvement and refine-ment guarantee the ultimate satisfac-tion of our customers.

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More than High Quality: Conscientiousness

Quality Materials

Ravensburger is one of the few German game producers to manufacture almost all of its products itself. We make 85 per cent of our articles at our main factory in Ravensburg and at our factory in Policka, Czech Republic. This alone guarantees top quality. We manufacture a small portion of our products in collaboration with partners in the EU. We also collab-orate with partners in China who can provide the required high level of man-ual craftsmanship for those products that cannot be produced at a reason-able price in Europe. Here, we are con-scientious about ensuring the safety of all products and operate a system of painstaking checks not only during production, but prior to shipment to Germany and on the products’ arrival in Ravensburg.

Quality consciousness is an everyday element of the Ravensburger corporate culture. We are profoundly aware of our responsibility towards the children who use our games and books and we take the utmost care in the develop-ment, production and processing of our products. The elaborate quality as- surance procedures we impose in line with our own self-imposed inspection requirements are clear evidence of this. In many cases, they are more stringent than the EU standards, for example in the case of critical ingredients. Safety is our top priority, especially when it comes to products for small children. Because they put our books in their mouths, we use only pure cellulose in- stead of recycled materials. We also have a so-called “mouth gauge” with

In-house production ensures quality

Ravensburger controls more rigorous than legal requirements

which we check how small a part can be without a child being able to swal- low it. Our limit value is 7 per cent above the legal requirement. To ensure that children cannot detach and swallow small parts from toys or books, we do a pull test that’s 10 per cent higher than the statutory standard; and we are also 15 per cent above standard with our break-resistance test. Even the Ravensburger Spieleland theme park is one of only a handful of parks anywhere in the world to hold certification from Germany’s technical inspection and monitoring authority, TÜV, for maximum possible safety and quality. After all, our aim is for Ravensburger products and activities to give carefree enjoy-ment – and to give parents a safe, se- cure feeling.

Thanks to the geographical proximity and flexibility of our production plant, we can keep deliveries going out to re- tailers until shortly before Christmas – anywhere in Europe, within 48 hours of ordering. Our custom care team offers uncomplicated assistance, free of charge, via our online service page; on request, we can soon replace a lost puz- zle piece or a game’s instruction sheet that simply cannot be found.

To give you an idea of the high quality of the materials we use in our prod-ucts, we would like to explain, on the following pages, how we produce our puzzles.

We also offer quality service

The Ravensburger range of puzzles has the right picture and the right number and size of pieces for every age group. Ravensburger puzzle pieces are so pre- cisely cut that assembling the puzzles is a genuine “experience”. The premium quality we produce comes from over 40 years of experience and an elab-orate production process that begins with the choice of board. Developed ex- clusively for Ravensburger, our board is ecological and the grain and length of the cellulose fibres are ideally adapted to our quality standards. The chrome linen facing of the printed picture makes for non-glare pieces. Precise punching of the puzzle pieces from the board-mounted motif is crucial to perfect inter- locking, variety of shape and a “quiet picture”. The process resembles that of

cutting out biscuits from a piece of rolled dough. Whereas small cutters are used for biscuits, we need precise punching templates for the manufac-ture of puzzles. Here at Ravensburger, we produce these templates in a lengthy process that combines handcraftsman-ship and watchmaker’s precision with state-of-the-art technology. To ensure that no two pieces are identical, tem- plates are drawn by hand (1) and laser- cut (2) into a mounting plate. Our spe- cialists bend metal cutters by hand using specially developed tools, insert them one by one with millimetre ac- curacy into the laser-cut lines on the plate (3) and check that no gaps have been left (4). Once the finished punch- ing tool has been set up in the punching machine, the puzzle pieces can be cut. Constant checks ensure that all cut edges are clean and the puzzles complete in their boxes.

Ravensburger quality puzzles are superbly crafted

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More than Responsibility: Obligation

Responsibility

More than 125 years of company history in one place, a place that has lent the Ravensburger brand its name – those years stand for close ties and deep roots with the city and the region. A logical consequence of this is the need to keep the location competitive – and that’s quite a challenge we are facing. The family enterprise’s close ties also bring with them a responsibility.

A family enterprise stands very much for continuity, enduring values and hard and fast principles. In our case, these values are also greatly influenced by the owner family. We all feel duty- bound to keep the Ravensburger pro-mise of quality – in terms of content, materials and service.

Because we produce our own products, we can ensure that working standards are fair. We are highly successful in our efforts to ensure the greatest possible safety for our production and logistics employees. As for the small proportion of articles we cannot produce ourselves, we do our utmost to ensure fair work- ing conditions at our partners’ produc-tion sites. Ravensburger was one of the first to join the “Fair Play” initiative and we insist that our suppliers in China, for example, hold certification of compli-ance with the International Council of Toy Industries’ code. The code includes a ban on child labour, compliance with statutory working hour regulations, as well as safety, health and environmen-tal standards. Our partner companies are obliged to meet these standards

The responsibility of a family enterprise

Responsible production, fair partners

and their compliance is monitored by in- dependent institutes. To us, responsible production also means using resources sparingly and doing our utmost to pro- tect the environment. We recycle more than 95 per cent of our production waste. Here at Ravensburger, responsibility also applies to our business dealings: we are reliable and predictable partners for everyone with whom we work, for our authors and suppliers, for our cus- tomers and buyers all over the world.

In the year 2000, the family enterprise founded the non-profit-making founda- tion Stiftung Ravensburger Verlag, which sponsors educational and child-raising projects in the cultural and social envir-onment of children and families. Ravensburger also continues in its com-

mitment both to Germany’s national reading foundation, Stiftung Lesen, of which we have been patrons since its formation in 1988, and to the Mehr Zeit für Kinder (More Time for Children) ini- tiative it has already been supporting for many years.

Long experience and the keen sense of responsibility that governs all of our ac- tions have forged the values which in- fluence every aspect of our work, small and large, today and tomorrow. We act upon those values with conviction and feel a deep obligation to keep our brand promise. So that children and adults constantly . . .

We assume corporate social responsibility

Ravensburger values: A promise you can trust – today and tomorrow, too

Discover What is Really Important.

The Ravensburger Values

Published by:Ravensburger AG88188 Ravensburg

© Ravensburger AG, October 2008