Patrick Döring is the chairman of the board of directors at Wertgarantie. With over 3,000 retail partners in Germany, the specialist insurance company arrives at IFA 2022 to meet old friends and make new ones too. 

What brings you, and Wertgarantie, to IFA this year?
We are here as a strong partner of all our associates in the retail business. We have a long-standing collaboration with electronic cooperative Euronics, and have more than 3,000 retail partners in Germany.

You are seeing your family, in a way
Exactly. 

How would you explain your company’s strategy?
In the last few years, we have been investing a lot to repair and not replace. What we see here especially is the increasing importance of high quality products, more expensive, but repairable home appliances and white goods. I believe for a lot of people, a day without a dishwasher is nearly as painful as a day without a mobile phone. 

Tell us about how Wertgarantie is supporting its French subsidiary, SFG.
The acquisition of Société Française de Garantie in 2014 was a strategic investment to jump into the French and the Belgian markets. As a strong national insurance brand, we believe that it’s good if companies like SFG, which sell external warranty to their partners, have access to a good risk-taker for this external warranty business. If the risk-taker is the parent company, it’s easier to create smart and good products for our retail partners in this sector. 

Back to IFA. How important is this event for the industry?
It’s very important. Insurers like us need to see what the industry is producing and selling to the people. Business is all human-driven, what we are doing here is relationship management. Here at IFA, it’s easy to meet a lot of our partners, but also to identify new ones, discussing with them which business opportunities there are in the future.