SINA® was founded about one year after the reunification of Germany. At a time when the East German economy was at rock bottom and unemployment was very high. Despite, or precisely because of this the founding partners Lulu Schiffler-Betz, Horst Ehnert and Werner Seidler decided the project was worth the risk. Production began in Neuwernsdorf in October that year, with 5 employees. At the time products were manufactured exclusively for Dusyma Kindergartenbedarf GmbH. No-one could have known at the time that SINA® would initially fail at this location.

A necessary building application to extend and renovate the building was rejected by the authorities. And still worse, the Chemnitz Regional Council and the Environment Agency served SINA® with notice to halt production and investment immediately. The reason given for this was its close proximity to the Rauschenbach reservoir. For most people that would have spelled the end. But not for us. What then took place can be likened to an odyssey through the authorities, the Treuhandanstalt and the banks.

The tile-based ‘Mix-and-Match’ Puzzle was the very first product we developed in-house, modelled on a traditional game. It is still available to this day.

We exhibited at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg for the first time and received our first award for product design.
For the QUO Basic Building Set, designed by Karsten Braune, we received the German Design Award for Wooden Toys and reached 3rd place in the Saxony State Prize for Design 1994.

Relocation to our new company headquarters and production facilities at Bahnhofstraße 17 in 09544 Neuhausen.

Once again in this year, too, we had to bring in heavy machinery to take down and clear dilapidated fabric of the building that in part dated back to 1880. The entrance to the factory could no longer take heavy delivery vehicles. Particularly in winter the vehicles sank into the soft ground. We created a new entrance to the factory site and completed it to the standard of a public road. The old oil central heating in the old building was replaced by a modern, energy-efficient pellet heating system. And we replaced the windows in the old building, too, in order to conserve energy.

We brought into operation our biomass furnace including shredding technology and briquette press. From then onwards SINA® used all its own wood waste to generate heat.

German toy manufacturers were coming under increasing pressure. More and more toys were being imported from low-wage countries. The result was a growing pressure on prices compared internationally. At the same time the toy trade was declining. This was the time to change our production profile. We concentrated increasingly on toys and play furniture for childcare facilities using flat materials. We expanded our machine park by giving it 160m² more production area, and acquired an automatic horizontal beam saw and a vacuum lifter to optimise our processes.

We are now selling our toys worldwide.

We extended and refurbished our factory outlet. The result is a modern and welcoming display and sales space.

We invested in a new automatic wide belt sander to provide a top quality finish.

Our extraction system from 2009 with its bag filter reached the limit of its capacity and was no longer economically viable. The system therefore had to be modernised and optimised. We invested in a new filter house with a top-mounted filter and a new return air system for a more efficient systems operation.

The old building received a new facade design so that the company philosophy of SINA® can now also be seen on the exterior.

SINA® celebrated its 25th anniversary in the imposing and festive setting of Schloss Purscheinstein, Neuhausen.
For us this was a way to thank from the bottom of our hearts all those people who had believed in us and contributed to our success. Including our exclusive agent in Japan, Atelier NIKI TIKI, and the designer Yasuo Aizawa who travelled to the Erzgebirge to visit SINA®. What an honour!