History
Founded in 1853 by Carl Friedrich Merkle, the company was owned by the Merkle family for four generations and produced at the historic location on Grindelallee. Finally, it was Harald Carl Friedrich Merkle from the fourth generation who gave the company its last name, “HCF Merkle”.
The company was taken over in 1993 by the Hamburg merchant and jeweler Nils Friese, as a successor to the fifth generation of the Merkle family was not an option. The new owner modernized Merkle, developed the company significantly and ultimately led the traditional manufacture into the 21st century.
Merkle in the 21st century
After years of successfully continuing the business at the old location, in 2005 the company moved to a new building in Eimsbüttel in Deepenstöcken, the current company headquarters. On around 800 square meters, the Merkle company transformed itself into a partially automated factory, thus establishing a new tradition, which the latest technology is still used today. In addition to laser technology and soldering systems, modern and partially automated CNC lathes and milling machines are used.
Amodoro
In this breath, the step into a new field took place in 2009: With the Amodoro brand, the Merkle company developed one of the first online wedding ring configurators worldwide, with which end customers could for the first time design completely individual wedding rings from home in an innovative way.
This configurator was embedded in a strong partner network, an association of independent jewelers and goldsmiths in Germany and Austria, who share Merkle’s vision to this day, to encourage bridal couples to realize their very personal idea of perfect wedding rings.
Recycling & Fairtrade Gold
However, the year 2009 was also a year of innovations in other respects. Since that year the Merkle company has exclusively been using recycling gold for the production of rings and is still relying entirely on gold, which has been in circulation for many generations. Even if the track to the original origin of gold is lost over the centuries, a decisive step has been taken to avoid creating new incentives for conventional, environmentally harmful gold mining.
More about our precious metals / materials
From today’s perspective, we at Merkle say: That was a good decision. Because for over 10 years we have enjoyed working with gold that we can find good every day. And that’s not all: if we offer new, freshly extracted gold at the customer’s request, we have been doing this exclusively as part of our Fairtrade Gold certification since 2016. We even give our customers the direct opportunity to promote small-scale gold mining in South America and thus enable miners and their families to have a good life. It is our small contribution to a better future.
Strong partner for retailers
Another chapter begins at the beginning of the 2020s. With Matthias Heerens, Thomas Junge and Benjamin Urland, there are new owners, exciting changes and new challenges that affect the entire industry.
But one thing remains, and that is the core of the Merkle company: to be a flexible and always reliable, strong partner for our customers, who have valued us for decades.
