Oliver Jörger is the chief designer and managing director of JÖRGER Armaturen-und Accessoiresfabrik GmbH. The German family-owned company headquartered in Mannheim is about to turn 115 this year. The following interview was first published in the 2024 spring edition of the Austrian trade magazine “exclusive Bauen und Wohnen”, under the title of “Exklusives Design mit hoher Individualisierung” (Exclusive Design with a High Degree of Customization).
Oliver Jörger is talking to “exclusive Bauen und Wohnen” about Jörger Design, the most recent design innovations, the mega trend of customization in bathrooms, and exciting future projects.
Your company, JÖRGER Armaturen- und Accessoiresfabrik GmbH, is going to turn 115 this year. Congratulations! How does that make you feel?
Oliver Jörger: It makes me feel proud, happy, and grateful. It feels really great. Thank you!
What makes you so very successful?
The actual key to success certainly is that we remain true to ourselves and consistently pursue a line once we have recognized it as being right for us.
Is that alluding to your corporate philosophy? What would that be?
Since the company was founded back in 1909, the name of Jörger has represented exclusive, individual design – and that’s how it should remain.
We are primarily aligned with customers who are looking for something special and extraordinary and who value our claim to quality, both here and anywhere in the world.
We want to live up to this in future, too. Therefore, our main goal cannot be expansion at any price. We would like to keep growing as a brand manufacturer in our exclusive niche instead, also by maintaining and expanding our existing partnerships at home and abroad.
“Exclusive, individual design” – what special features does that entail?
The special feature is part of it. It has a name: Jörger Design. All of our collections were and are developed in-house at Jörger. For more than two decades, I have been personally responsible for Jörger Design. For example, look at the “Exal”, “Eleven”, “Valencia”, and “Belledor” ranges. They all bear my signature. The same is true of “Turn”, “Empire Royal”, and “Cronos”.
You are referring to some very differently positioned product lines there. What connects them?
Our unique selection presents timeless, outstanding designs of the highest quality – in every minute detail. Traditional craftsmanship merges with technological progress.
How do you adjust to your customers?
We dealt with customization and personalization in bathroom and fitting design strategically very early on, which makes us virtually a driver of this development.
That also is where our extraordinary strength comes in. We are a design manufactory and particularly well able to competently and flexibly satisfy customer demands for unique, integrated bathroom experience spaces.
What does customization mean specifically at Jörger?
We specialize in surface finishing, product adjustment, custom production, and new development of products for single orders.
The most recent example of this is connected to our exclusive “Valencia” series that experienced an unprecedented development and differentiation in less than four years – not least also based on inspiring requests from private customers. Specifically, I am referring to the “Valencia” jewelry design in polished nickel with Palissandro Blue.
That means that exclusiveness and customization are closely linked?
Customization is decisive in creating unique product offerings that stand out from the masses. Exclusive design is barely imaginable without customization.
Is that the reason behind the outstanding success of “Valencia”, which has clearly developed into a best-seller in the last two years?
Certainly. Innovative product development and customization surely are the decisive factors for success here. The exclusive “Valencia” series embodies custom bathroom aesthetics of a perfectly unique kind.
In what way? Please explain a little more.
We are setting entirely new standards in terms of customization in particular in the gemstone edition. Seven natural stones create a status of perfect uniqueness: labradorite, malachite, black marble, violet amethyst, blue aventurine, white turquoise, and Palissandro Blue. Every single stone has natural origins and is absolutely one of a kind as a result of this. Together with the 16 surfaces and finishings that are available for this collection, they make for extraordinarily creative options for private customers, interior designers, and bathroom planners.
What Jörger highlights may our readers look forward to in the near future?
We are working on a very exciting project. I’ll only give away this much here: Metal will meet natural stone once more.
