Update

Olga Bader is scaling back her activity

A colleague's farewell to the eXtra4 sales team

Birkenfeld, September 2026. After almost 20 years, Ms Olga Bader is stepping down from her professional role in sales at eXtra4 Labelling Systems. Whilst she will continue to support her colleagues on an hourly basis for some time to come, she is giving up her position in order processing and order fulfilment to ensure a smooth transition into retirement.

A life marked by upheavals
After such a long time on the eXtra4 sales team, the change isn’t easy, even though Ms Bader has already successfully navigated a number of major changes in her life: Born to German ancestors in Kazakhstan and raised during the Soviet era, after completing her studies and getting married in Novosibirsk, she took the plunge and moved to Germany with her whole family in 1990 to start a new life. Thanks to her business training and practical experience from her home country, she quickly finds her feet in the local job market. Her perfect command of German and Russian enabled her to secure a position in eXtra4’s export department in 2007.

Success with exports to Eastern Europe
Thanks to her active support, the eXtra4 business in Eastern Europe is growing more and more. However, geopolitical upheavals from 2014 onwards gradually undid all these efforts. Ms Bader is forced to find a new direction. Without further ado, she shifts the focus of her work to her current field – order writing and processing – which she must now leave behind once again.

A little farewell from the team
To make her transition to a sort of ‘part-time retirement’ easier, her colleagues surprise Olga Bader on her last day at work in her familiar role: A decorative plant for the gardening enthusiast and a voucher for a delicious meal at a renowned restaurant are intended to offer a little taste of the pleasures of having more time for personal life rather than the professional.
 

 

Staying on the ball at labels for 30 years

Alexander Brenk, company anniversary celebrant, started out as a trainee there

Birkenfeld, September 2026. Alexander Brenk has learnt the labelling business from the ground up and is constantly keeping pace with the changes in his field. When he began his apprenticeship as an industrial clerk on 1 September 1996, working practices at Ferdinand Eisele were in keeping with the times: office communication – the key tool for a clerk in business dealings – was still predominantly analogue: landline telephones, post and, most importantly, fax machines defined the apprentice’s day-to-day life. After all, word processing, the calculation of label orders and parts of the company’s operational organisation are already carried out using networked PCs, but floppy discs are still the storage medium of choice, and email is still in its infancy.

From apprentice to permanent staff
At the time, Mr Brenk felt well prepared to embark on his career. After leaving secondary school in 1995, he first attended a vocational college specialising in business. Business studies was one of his favourite subjects, working with computers was one of his hobbies, and as a keen football fan, he had long been aware that you can only win as a team. Little by little, the young man grows into his role. He proves so capable that, upon completing his training on 1 September 1999, he is taken on by Ferdinand Eisele to join the sales team.

Core competence: stock items
Alexander Brenk’s main area of responsibility will be order processing for commercial goods. His key tasks include providing advice, accepting orders, preparing order documents and arranging dispatch, including invoices and transport documents. He is well known to most customers. As the person in charge of Ferdinand Eisele’s stock range, he is familiar with all the labels that can be purchased pre-produced without a production order. However, when he started his career in 1999, the product catalogue comprised just 16 pages. Today, a much wider range of different labels is presented at fixed prices across 100 pages, not to mention the range of hardware and software, including accessories, which now complements the product range produced in-house and sourced from third parties. Yet Mr Brenk keeps a clear overview, provides well-informed advice – in English too, of course – and is held in high regard as a prudent adviser.

Keeping pace with progress
In 2005, the industrial clerk witnessed the launch of ‘eXtra4 Labelling Systems’ as an umbrella brand for Ferdinand Eisele’s diverse product range. By now, email correspondence had already come to dominate business communications, computer work had become the norm in the office, the internet was the primary means of gathering information, and e-commerce was beginning its triumphant advance. The company has had a website for some time now. Since 2010, its own online shop has been selling eXtra4 retail products online. Handling and processing these online transactions have expanded Alexander Brenk’s remit.

Logistics as a factor in quality
Globalisation and the World Wide Web are making the world seem smaller and expanding the customer base for eXtra4. For some time now, the company’s goods have been crossing national borders and serving customers throughout Europe. More and more clients from outside Europe are joining the list, including quite a few from overseas. The effort involved in customs and transport is increasing, and this has a significant impact on Mr Brenk’s area of responsibility. Dispatch is becoming a service factor that defines the quality with which the company’s overall performance is perceived: after all, what use is a high-quality product if it does not arrive on site undamaged and on time?

Quality ambassadors providing a service to the world
Thanks to his many years of experience, Alexander Brenk is not easily thrown off balance. He has a firm and confident grasp of all aspects of processing merchandise orders, knows how to liaise with colleagues in a spirit of partnership, and is able to get his point across in a measured yet firm manner. This wins over both customers and the management team. Managing Director Alex Schickel extends his warmest thanks to him for his dedication and loyalty, in the hope that he will be able to count on Mr Brenk in future as well, when eXtra4 products are launched onto the worldwide market.
 

 

Sponsored mobile phone workshop for school pupils

eXtra4 supports a local initiative on media literacy

June 2026. The parents’ initiative at the local primary, secondary and lower secondary schools near the Ferdinand Eisele GmbH site has set itself the task of promoting the knowledge and skills that equip pupils for everyday life, but which are not included in the curriculum. Media educator Clemens Beisel has been a valued partner there for years when it comes to the use of mobile phones and social media. As a software provider through its subsidiary eXtra4 Software & Service GmbH, Ferdinand Eisele GmbH supports the Friends’ Association with IT-related projects for the school, including the workshop on the topic ‘Likes, chats, endless scrolling: how apps capture our attention’.

The aim of the event for Years 5 and 6 was to make pupils aware of how much time they spend looking at their mobile phone screens each day, and of the mechanisms apps use to capture their attention. The pupils learnt how to protect their personal data, how to stay safe when interacting with people they don’t know, along with the rules and principles of fairness when communicating online.

As teaching such practical, real-life content is often not feasible using school resources alone, Ferdinand Eisele is actively involved in the local community as a sponsor. IT skills are currently in high demand among company apprentices, and Ferdinand Eisele will therefore continue to support relevant initiatives in the future.