WHO ARE WE, THE 2STORKS?
IN SHORT: BULGARIAN ENTREPRENEURS
Company with significant market presence and experience for over 20 years. Importer and producer of the widest selection of professional instruments for manicure, pedicure and artificial nails. Exclusive representative of prestigious companies from Solingen, Germany for hairdressing scissors, combs, brushes, hairpins, clippers and hair dryers.
The Bulgarian partnership with Solingen
Founded in 1921 by Tzvetko Georgiev in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, the company adopted in 1931the logo of the two storks, who are resting their beaks on each other. The company started to conduct direct import operations and became the representative for Bulgaria of the best cutlery, electrical razors for hair styling as well as other tools for manicure and pedicure made in the city of Solingen in Germany. In 1948, the company was forced to stop all commercial operations and cease its trading activity. In 1991, the company was re-registered by the son of Tzvetko Georgiev – Kiril, under the name of “Solingen – Tzvetko Georgiev and son” and it reestablished its trade partnerships with Solingen. The company’s main activities continued to be the representation, import and sale of professional as well as casual instruments and tools for hair dressers, manicurists, pedicurists as well as tools for cooking and meat processing. The trademark of the company was again the same as before – two white storks in a red circle. The family company’s destiny is also closely related to those birds as a sole stork does not bring spring along but two of them definitively signal springtime is coming.
Here is the full story from the beginning
In 1913, at the height of the Balkan wars prior to the WWI, three young brothers and their sister set off from the village of Sirishtnik, region of Radomir. Their father has been fighting in the war and disappeared on the front so the siblings decide that they need to go to the place where the tsar lives. So were they told by good people who wished them well on their journey. The boys and their sister set off on foot from the village and upon reaching Radomir, one of the brothers, Tzvetko (13 years old at the time) said to walk along the rail tracks so not to get lost.
Early one morning, feeling exhausted, they arrived in Sofia. The 13 year old boy walked around looking for jobs and took any job he could find. His first job was in a pub where he cleaned dishes. He then went to work in a bakery where every morning he would bring around freshly baked bread before going to his second job at a stool in the central railway station. He started to sell newspapers and anything else the hundreds of passengers passing through the station daily might need. Exactly here he earned his name for an honest and respected entrepreneur. The owners of the stool also noticed the motivation and great business approach of the young man.
This made him feel more confident in his own abilities and gave him courage to use his profits for the opening of his own little shop on the “Maria Louisa” boulevard. In reality, Tzvetko hired a small part of the communal staircase of a building with appartments on that boulevard. With his unstoppable business attitude and entrepreneurial spirit, his trade grew exponentially and in the beginning of the 30s of the 20th century, he hired a much bigger shop on the same boulevard, on the other side of the Covered Market in Sofia. So, in 1931, for the first time, the two storks landed in Bulgaria. Their nest has been woven by many initiatives and ideas, who came from Tzvetko. The business grew even stronger and Tzvetko Georgiev became the trade representative of over 40 prestigious companies from Germany, France, Czech Republic and others. Every year he visited the Leipzig Fair where he got personally acquainted with all the novelties.
And so the success grew and continued so until 1948 when the new regime forcefully closed down the business. So what happened to the orphaned boy who climbed to the peaks of business and trade? After the closure of the shops, he is forcefully relocated by the government to the town of Lukovit where he decides to buy vineyards. With his well-developed sense for quality, he started to make wine, proving that no one can stop an entrepreneurial spirit.
Like any migrating bird, the two storks left the nest on “Maria Louisa” boulevard in 1948 and came back to build a new nest on “Pirotska” street (on the other side of the Covered Market in Sofia). The family business is reinstated by the son – Kiril Georgiev. He painstakingly collects all old contracts and correspondence from his father’s dealings with companies from Solingen and restores a large number of his father’s contacts. His son, of course, did not just stop here – he significantly enlarged and renewed the nomenclature of the company and today, “Solingen – Tzvetko Georgiev and son” has deservedly become the leader in the professional branch of high tech instruments.
The main and proven by time principle guiding the work of Kiril is the rule that only the best is sufficiently good. Today, the company is the biggest importer and distributor in Bulgaria of hair styling tools and accessories.
A significant part of the company’s offered products is taken up by the instruments for manicure and pedicure as well as general foot and hand care. This is natural as nothing leaves a better first impression than someone’s hands and nothing is more important to our constantly on the move lifestyle than having special and good care for our feet.
