Hummel's kitsch porcelain is saved

A new firm said it will take over production of the kitsch collectables from porcelain manufacturer Goebel.

New owner Hoechster said it had acquired the factory equipment and necessary rights to go on making the stylised child figurines.

Goebel had announced it was axeing the line in June due to costs and diminishing demand.

Investor Joerg Koester said: "We want to give Hummel figurines the same significance they had in their best times for collectors and admirers."

The newly founded company will continue working at the Goebel factory with a reduced staff of 30 in the northern Bavarian town of Roedental.

Goebel had been making the MI Hummel figurines, based on the drawings of Bavarian nun Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, since 1935.

The company, founded in 1871, makes tableware, earthenware and other porcelain figurines.