And the winner is… Frederic and Marlon Schulmeister with “Fußkundig”

The FUSS AWARD 2024 was presented for the first time at the BEAUTY Düsseldorf cosmetics trade fair, featuring three main categories along with a special prize. In the “Best Business Model” category, Simeon Ruck, one of the award’s initiators, presented the prize personally to Marlon and Frederic Schulmeister.

“You haven’t just founded a company, you’ve launched an entire movement,” said the managing director of HELLMUT RUCK GmbH as he presented the award to the two brothers. The founders and owners of “Fußkundig” impressed the jury with their innovative concept for taking over a practice, their offer of centralised instrument reprocessing along with their own range of care products.

In our interview, Frederic Schulmeister provides insights into the vision that drives him and his brother, and into the key business areas of their company:

Congratulations on winning the FUSS AWARD 2024! Your company is still young, yet it has expanded to 13 locations around Düsseldorf in a very short period of time. What is the secret to your success?

What drives us every day is the vision that has guided us from the very beginning: we want to leave a ‘footprint’ with what we do. We have drawn up a clear roadmap for the next five years and that is where our entire focus lies. The fact that there are two of us is certainly one of our great strengths. My brother and I can be confident in each other. Neither of us shies away from hard work, and we have clearly divided our areas of responsibility within the company. In the family business we come from, this wasn’t always the case, and we have seen first-hand the friction this can cause.

The professional coaching with Anja Krauskopf has been a great help to us. Thanks to assessing our individual strengths, a clear structure and division of tasks emerged. My brother Marlon’s strengths lie in interpersonal relations, which is why he is responsible for HR, amongst other things. I myself am more numbers-oriented and have an eye on our business development and finances. We were then impressed by Anja’s support, which has led to her becoming part of the Fußkundig team and being primarily responsible for training our managers.

You have drawn up a detailed 109-point plan for practice takeovers. How far do you would like to expand your network of specialist practices?

The challenge for us at present is to develop a structure that can provide adequate support to practices further afield. This process is currently underway. Until now, our network has been primarily regional, with a focus on the greater Düsseldorf area. We have received highly numerous enquiries, particularly from southern Germany, and are working flat out on a solution.

With your versatile business model, you are breaking new and innovative ground in podiatry. What is the vision behind this?

We have deliberately tried to think ‘outside the box’ and not set ourselves any limits. What might the professional world look like in 30 years’ time? In our vision, ‘Fußkundig’ has developed into Germany’s largest podiatry organisation and is synonymous with professional podiatry treatment, then as the Tempo brand is for tissues.

Besides podiatry, your practice network also encompasses other business areas within the healthcare sector. Are there any synergy effects?

We actually provide every form of treatment today. The specialist areas unrelated to the foot are grouped under the “Körperkundig” brand and complement “Fußkundig” perfectly. Our clients often have not only foot problems but also require assistance with physiotherapy or occupational therapy. From coordinating appointments to interdisciplinary collaboration, everything stays under one roof. The locations offering such a wide range of services also benefit from the interdisciplinary exchange across different specialist areas that is possible there. Thanks to hybrid training programmes, we aim to further promote the integration of the various teams.

You provide coaching for podiatrists. What are your main areas of focus with this service?

Your main focus? We provide exclusively one-to-one coaching, as everyday professional life and the resulting challenges are extremely varied. From our own experience, my brother and I are familiar with many problems, but also with well-suited solutions. Most often, these involve structural issues within the practice, business management questions or staff management. Unfortunately, these are areas that are scarcely covered in podiatry training and are not included in the curriculum. We teach the suitable approach to these issues, simply under the heading of ‘best practice’.

A relatively new development is the establishment of a key instrument reprocessing facility for your own sites, but also for external practices. How exactly does this work?

All our locations are supplied with instruments centrally, and we also handle orders from external practices. The reprocessed instruments are delivered daily or per week in transport boxes by our delivery service, which collects the used instruments straight away. All instruments undergo a fully reprocessing process, albeit on a slightly different scale than usual: We have two separate areas, a clean area and an unclean area, a high-performance professional cleaning and disinfection unit (RDG) and currently three sterilisers. All equipment is connected to a computerised monitoring system, ensuring seamless documentation of the entire process.

Another key component of your company’s concept is a skincare range containing extracts of the andiroba nut. How did you come across this rather obscure ingredient?

One of our patients discovered andiroba oil during a trip to Brazil in 2018 – a well-known traditional remedy among the indigenous people there. It was recommended to him for treating an inflamed mosquito bite and proved effective within a very short time. Upon his return, he greeted me with the words, “I’ve found the suitable ingredient for your foot care range!” – and that’s then how it turned out.

During my research, I found many scientific papers and doctoral theses on the range of effects of the andiroba nut and was thrilled. Soothing, antifungal, wound-healing – it can be used for many foot problems. The perfect active ingredient for a foot care range that provides users real added value.

Is it true that you are planning to launch a franchise system on the German market in the medium term?

Exactly, that is our latest project. We need strong partners by our side so that our vision becomes a reality. We have already closed our first partnership. In Gummersbach and seven other locations, physiotherapy and podiatry will be offered under one roof in future.

As an entrepreneur, you invest a great deal of time and dedication into your business idea. What about your personal work-life balance?

If you pursue your deepest passion, you simply enjoy what you do. You’re living your dream! That’s why I don’t find the time invested stressful; entirely the opposite: as far as I’m concerned, the day can easily have a few more hours. Of course, my brother and I also seek balance in our private lives to clear our heads now and then: my brother likes to tinker with old cars, whilst I am a passionate show jumper and regularly take part in competitions.

If you look 10 years into the future, what would you like to see for podiatry?

We have gathered highly significant amounts of learning in a short space of time and realised that there is still plenty of freedom for the sector to become more professional. Public awareness of podiatry also needs to be raised. We would like to support this, for example thanks to our coaching programme. I would also like to see even more areas of treatment open up for podiatry, so that we can realise the profession's full potential. That will take time, but in my view the sector is highly on its way!

Take this opportunity to showcase your skills on the large stage at BEAUTY Düsseldorf and reserve recognition from industry professionals. You can find all the information you need to take part here.