About us
WE COLOUR THE WORLD
We are goki – for 40 years we have been producing wooden toys and making the world more colourful. We make wooden toys so that childhood remains an adventure.
In 1981, Gerhard Gollnest and Fritz-Rüdiger Kiesel founded what is now the largest toy company in northern Germany. They are now supported in the management by Thorsten Koss and Markus Lüneburg. More than 450 goki employees worldwide are busy making childhood and children's rooms more colourful. More than 2,000 different products form one of the most diverse ranges in the toy industry. At the heart of our range are the goki, HEIMESS and HOLZTIGER brands.
Sustainability
"Whoever takes something from nature must also give something back to it," says Fritz-Rüdiger Kiesel. That's why we donate a new forest to Schleswig-Holstein, the most sparsely forested state in Germany, every year – one tree for every new-born child. More than 400,000 beech, oak and maple trees have been planted since 2004.
Beech, maple or spruce trees stand in the forest for more than 80 years before they are felled in the spirit of sustainable forestry. A whole human life must pass, and only then do we want to and are we allowed to use the wood. It is our obligation and responsibility to produce the best possible wooden toys from it. It is based on this intention that we have developed unwaveringly over the past 40 years.
At goki, we believe in making responsible toys: We only use wood from sustainable, European forestry. We endeavour to manufacture as many products as possible in a recyclable way. We have set ourselves the ambitious and unique goal of banning the four plastics PVC, PU, ABS and PS from all our toys and replacing them with environmentally friendly alternatives. Our brands goki, HEIMESS and HOLZTIGER are synonymous with qualitative growth in every respect: We have planted 400,000 trees to date. We cannot know who will use them one day, but we hope they will do so in our spirit.
Social commitment
We are also socially committed worldwide. For example, schools are being built in developing countries such as Mali, Peru and Uganda. There, children who previously had to work in mines, among other places, are given the chance to receive an education. In goki's own factory in China, western standards prevail in terms of occupational health and safety. The employees receive wages that are far above the collective wage agreement. It goes without saying that no goki toys are built by children. We make toys FOR children, not BY children.
Quality and safety
Toys should be fun and safe. To ensure the highest safety standards, our quality management team tests all products in our in-house laboratory. External testing institutes also regularly examine our articles in extensive tests.
Awards - a small selection
spiel gut
Our wooden toys have been honoured many times by the working committee kinderspiel + spielzeug. Products of the HOLZTIGER brand alone have received the coveted seal around 200 times. The independent association spiel gut e. V. is financed by the Ministry of Family Affairs and through the sale of its advisory publications. It provides a valuable decision-making aid for the purchase of good toys.
The Golden Rocking Horse
Our toys have received the "Golden Rocking Horse" award several times, which is presented by the family magazine "familie&co" and the German Association of the Toy Industry. In 2020, our Knight's Castle Ball Track received this coveted award in the "Play and Technology" category.
ToyAward
In 2020, our Knight's Castle Ball Track also won the ToyAward in the "PreSchool" category. Spielwarenmesse eG awards this prize to innovative new products every year. The trophy is one of the most important awards in the toy industry and enjoys worldwide recognition as a seal of quality.
