Five-star tableware

Can you explain the history of your brand and its selling points?

Sebastian Nolting: A producer of sterling silver and silver-plated cutlery and table accessories, Robbe & Berking was founded in Flensburg, Germany in 1874. It is a family-owned company so it continues to encourage and use traditional skills, as well as having a great reputation for producing classical and contemporary flatware.

Even though we have continually refined our knowledge of silver making, much of the original master craftsman's skills are still used.

Laszlo Szesztay: The Herend Porcelain company was founded in 1826 by Vince Stingl in Herend, Hungary. Following a brief spell characterised by the production of simple objects in a puritan style, we soon altered its profile and started producing high-quality porcelain inspired by oriental and classical European designs.

With more than 1000 employees, around 400 of them are painters, with all new workers trained under local masters in Herend's own vocational school. Looking at the patterns, they have names like Victoria, Batthyány, Esterházy, Liechtenstein and Rothschild, which are all named after the clients who ordered them first.

What products do you offer the Middle East market?

Sebastian Nolting: For the Middle East market the Robbe & Berking range includes high quality cutlery and a plethora of tableware; from candelabras to coffee and tea services, under plates, silver bowls and silver-plated gift items, among other gourmet items.

Laszlo Szesztay: We manufacture a lot of custom-made products, not just dinnerware but decorative items that are popular in the Middle East. However, there are some set designs that are popular, including the Rothschild, which was created for the Rothschild family in Vienna in 1850, and Apponyi that was created for Count Albert Apponyi at the turn of the century and allies simplicity with the exoticism of the Flowers of India.

How does the Middle East market differ from others?

Sebastian Nolting: There is no real difference in the product range that is available in the Middle East market compared to others, as the requests are more or less similar. One difference though is that in this region we work closely with a number of royal families, so we are used to offering a lot of customised and individual products compared to other regions.

Laszlo Szesztay: On the one hand the most popular patterns are the same all over the world, but on the other hand we can experience big differences between the quantities. Another difference is that there is a greater demand for custom-made products compared to other territories.

Which countries in the Middle East market do you target?

Sebastian Nolting: Robbe & Berking tries to cover the whole Middle East region. At the moment though we currently have partners in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon.

Laszlo Szesztay: Our key markets here are the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.