Schleich GmbH Company history

Friedrich Schleich founded Schleich in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1935. Today, the company is one of Germany’s largest toy manufacturers and a leading international supplier of realistic animal figures. The famous characters and sets made by schleich® are sold in more than 60 countries and have become a beloved feature in children’s rooms around the world. Schleich currently counts over 40,000 sales outlets around the globe, both brick-and-mortar and online. In 2025, the company celebrates its 90th anniversary.

The history of the company begins with its namesake Friedrich Schleich. From 1927, Schleich was employed in Schwäbisch Gmünd as a sales representative at the small Stuttgart company "Cloetta & Müller", a specialist distributor of industrial protective masks, before later taking over the entire company. In the post-war period, the focus was increasingly on advertising figures and mascots and Schleich, a Swabian tinkerer with an entrepreneurial spirit, also wanted to make a new start.

In 1946, the company began to develop velvet-covered dolls made of wire and wood and launched its first toy on the market in the same year: "Jopo", a serially produced bent doll with long legs, a pointed nose and a hat. “Jopo" quickly enjoyed great popularity and became a bestseller. The company grew rapidly and produced more than 60 other figures in various materials in the 1950s. In 1955, Schleich acquired a licence from Walt Disney^TM for the popular characters "Bambi" and "Pluto", which were made of foam rubber. Only two years later, the first series of miniature animals was produced: a sea lion family, an elephant and a kangaroo.

To meet the growing demand, Schleich moved to Herlikofen with a new factory from 1960. There, the company specialised in the development and production of technical plastic articles. Since then, the manufacture of the tools necessary for production as well as the quality and safety tests have been carried out at the company headquarters near Schwäbisch Gmünd. This was the beginning of the real triumphal procession of the Schleich figures and with the unmistakable blue Smurfs™, the Schleich company achieved worldwide fame from 1965 onwards. In 1975, the company celebrated its 40th anniversary and Friedrich Schleich his 75th birthday. In the same year, he hired Hermann Schneider as the second managing director. One year later, Friedrich Schleich sold his shares to Hermann Schneider and retired.

Hermann Schneider looked for new potential through product innovation and marketing. One of his first measures was for the logo: the "red S in a circle" stood for decades for the toy figure range from the house of Schleich, which was then expanded to include new product lines such as the Muppets, the PEANUTS™ and the Sandman. Thanks to the use of mass media such as radio and television, the products found even greater appeal worldwide. In 1983, the Wall Street Journal named The Smurfs™ toy figures, now with 250 different characters, "Toy of the Year".

Many other plastic figures, such as Maya the Bee^TM, Wum and Wendelin or The Pink Panther^TM, which became famous through television in the 70s, also contributed to the growing variety of products. From the 80s onwards, the company began to produce animal figures, which still form the core of the company today. In 1977, Friedrich Schleich, holder of the Federal Cross of Merit, died at the age of 77.

The company boomed and in order to be able to cope with the increasing demand, the construction of an extension building with a high-bay warehouse began on the company premises in 1984. In addition, Schleich acquired further licences for comic or TV characters and launched a new project: The "S-Point Project", which consisted of various kits that could be assembled into vehicles. This required additional investments in machines, moulds and tools.

The acquisition of many licences, high development costs and the failure of the "S-Point Project" led to an unpleasant balance sheet in 1986 and required cutbacks in the product lines from 1987. From then on, Schleich concentrated on producing its own high-quality, realistic and hand-painted animal figures. From the 1990s onwards, no other company produced animal figures with a comparable realism and attention to detail. Whether baby lion or elephant - every development is still checked for anatomical and colour accuracy before production.

When the film "Jurassic Park" triggered a worldwide storm of enthusiasm for the subject of dinosaurs in 1993, Schleich created a collection of the prehistoric giants in collaboration with palaeontologists from the Berlin Museum of Natural History. The series was extremely successful and was even used in biology lessons and in exhibitions about the Jurassic period because of its attention to detail. Other themed worlds such as Farm and Elves contributed to the company's ongoing success and the licensing sector expanded beyond PEANUTS™ and The Smurfs™: in 2014, Schleich teamed up with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to develop a series of famous superheroes on behalf of DC Entertainment, including the Batman™, Superman™ or The Flash™ toy figures.

Today, the portfolio takes into account the play needs of children at their different stages of development: In addition to the realistic themed worlds Farm World and Wild Life for children aged three to eight, Dinosaurs (for four to eight year olds) and Horse Club cover role play for children aged five to twelve. Those who enjoy fantasy themes and mysticism will find plenty of scope for imagination in play worlds such as bayala® and Eldrador® Creatures.

For several years, the company has been systematically developing its entire product range - from the well-known individual figures to complete play worlds. In July 2016, the company launched Horse Club, its own product world around the popular theme of horses, with lots of new figures, matching accessories and large and small play sets. Since 2018, in the new themed world Eldrador® Creatures, super-strong creatures with special features from the worlds of lava, ice, water and stone have been fighting for a mysterious superweapon that gives them the power to rule the other worlds. In 2020, Schleich opened a new chapter in the Dinosaurs world: The brand new Dinosaurs playsets around the three Colby brothers and their life in the secret dino research station open up a new exciting, adventurous play world for little dino fans. In 2023, things got magical at Schleich: The toy manufacturer enters the world of Harry Potter^TM and launches an own product line. In September 2023, the seven main characters Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Luna Lovegood and Albus Dumbledore appeared with their respective animal as well as six magical creatures from the Harry Potter^TM series. In 2024 Schleich launched the play world ‘Die Schule der magischen Tiere‘.

As a global player with German roots, Schleich now generates more than half of its turnover outside its core market of Germany and sells around 35 million figurines a year. The most important success factor is the expansion abroad, among others in France and the USA. Schleich now employs more around 350 people around the world. With the brand relaunch in 2022, Schleich comes a lot closer to its goal of becoming an internationally renowned "love brand". The company is now majority-owned by the Partners Group, a global private markets investment manager. The company has been headquartered in Munich since 2025.

In addition, Schleich has formulated the goal in 2022 to only use sustainable materials in the future. Schleich will optimise and certify its figures and packaging by the end of 2027 according to the principles of the Cradle to Cradle® circular economy to ensure the reuse of resources. In 2024, the company launched the first recyclable play figurines. These are the world's first ever Cradle to Cradle Certified® play figurines.