Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Krüger, since 2012 your company has been involved in the purchase of precious metals, particularly gold. Unlike many of your competitors, however, the sales business plays only a minor role for you - why?

Nicolaus Christian Krüger: This has to do with the basic orientation of our business operations. We buy large quantities of gold at near-market rates and then send them to the refinery. This requires a lot of liquidity, which would not be possible with an extensive gold sales business and the high capital commitment associated with it. Because in sales there is always to some extent the principle of hope that a customer will come as soon as possible, wanting to buy exactly that item, and that the selling price has not deteriorated significantly for us by then. We prefer to see ourselves as a recycling operation, ensuring that old, dental, and fine gold is recycled by the industry and can flow back into the economic cycle.

Wirtschaftsforum: Especially in trading with gold, credibility is probably the most important criterion for long-term economic success – how can you convince your customers that you also keep this promise?

Nicolaus Christian Krüger: Best directly on site, when the customer comes to our store. Indeed, our industry is unfortunately filled with quite a few players who promise a lot but then fail to deliver even half of that. Many advertise with very attractive purchase prices, but then the terms and conditions contain hidden clauses stating that these are only non-binding initial estimates, that various deductions apply, and much more. None of this happens with us. The price we specify minutely – on our website or in the store – is also the price we pay, without any fees or hidden costs. At this moment, as we conduct our interview, right now on August 2 at 11:10 AM, it's about 24.02 EUR per 1 gram of 333 gold, and not a cent less. You can count on it!

Wirtschaftsforum: How does the purchase process work in detail?

Nicolaus Christian Krüger: When you present yourself in person at our office, the material you bring is examined right before your eyes. Afterwards, its weight is determined on one of our scales, which have all been officially calibrated and sealed by the Office of Weights and Measures. Based on this, we then make a purchase offer at the current market value. If you accept this offer, we pay you the money directly in cash or transfer it to your account, as per your preference. Often, our customers visit our store in person for the first transaction. Once they are convinced of our integrity, many opt to use our postal shipping for future transactions to save on sometimes long travel times—this is especially true for our dealer customers. In this solution, the purchase price is fixed immediately upon receipt of the goods and printed out right after the package has been handed over to us by DHL—thus ensuring that the customer does not have to fear any worsening of the price.

However, particularly when a customer was convinced that his valuables were made of real gold and he assumed a value of about 10,000 EUR, but we could only determine a value of maybe 2,000 EUR upon inspection, we primarily show understanding when no sale occurs immediately following this shock. Often, however, we experience that such a customer approaches us again a few days later wanting to sell the valuable item to us after having obtained additional comparative offers, simply because he was convinced by our openness, transparency and our attractive offer – which we naturally see as an important indication of our quality promise. Conversely, the same applies: If in the course of a conversation with a customer there arises a justified suspicion that something is not right, we refrain from such a business deal with all due politeness, but equally consistently. Because transparency and integrity must naturally work in both directions.