PARDUR tropy slate - how it all began...

PARDUR is the name of the slate brand of Fa. Werner Flosbach GmbH & Co. KG,

an owner-managed medium-sized company with a corporate record of more than 50 years. For more than 40 years we work with slate and operate an own production in Remscheid, Germany. The owner and CEO, Dieter Flosbach, himself is a hunter, hence, tradition, handcraft and innovation are not only vacuous terms but daily lived values.

Also, hunting stands for tradition, handcraft and respectful interaction with the        creatures. Laying out the game and playing the horns, the honour of the "final bite", traditional hunting outfits as well as the appreciation of the hunted game as a trophy. Without these rituals hunting is not hunting. In the end, also a roast saddle of vension is not a sensual experience until you select the proper wine.

One day Dieter Flosbach and his hunting fellow Thomas Lüngen from Hamburg sat    together remembering common experiences when Thomas Lüngen, in his early 40ies, rather one of todays young hunters, found that the traditional hunting handcraft could be presented in a more contemporary way and that modern components could make a fresh breeze blow through the hunting parlours.

Hunting and with it also the trophies stay with us for the rest of our life. Therefor, it is important for most of all hunters to present these trophies in a high-quality dissected manner. However, almost all trophies are mounted on wooden shields. Those often do not adequately fit into the ambience of modern designed rooms. On the one hand, we are proud of our trophy and want to cherish it, but, on the other hand the classical wooden trophy shields jar with the modern furnishings.

The bright idea came across during dinner when a fine cheese assortment was served on a  slate plate. Deer, fallow deer and roe deer antlers on a slate plate? Maybe also a big slate for several antlers? Research revealed that there was no such product on the market yet, but that many hunting fellows could get into it.

Compared to wood, the slate has another optical advantage: It´s surface refracts the light for which reason different interesting patterns emerge. Also in rather dark rooms the slate´s surface comes into its own in a fascinating way. In contrast to the wood shield the slate is notably thinner what makes the trophies look brighter and directs more focus to them.

We started with the product development: Material selection, sizes, shapes, surface quality. optimization of the tools and machines, sample production. About one year later it was accomplished: The product " trophy slate" was created.