Valentine’s Day 1983 and a 2000 DM loan:
With a tiny 2000 DM loan, incredible courage, Swabian thrift and a lot of hard work, Ellen and Günther Grill founded SHERA on February 15, 1983. Founding father Günther was already 55 years old when he launched the small family business in Lemförde/Lower Saxony.

The Bulli has tradition:
The first company vehicle was an old and therefore very cheap VW van. The boss, Günther Grill, quickly painted over the predominantly rusty part of the bodywork with a matching brown color. Now the company could get going. In the meantime, SHERA's fleet has grown considerably and SHERA still has traditional vans today - but now they are guaranteed to be rust-free!

The Shelf of Death:
Buying useful things at a bargain price? No problem for company founder Günther Grill. At an auction, he won a much-needed shelving system, which he and his son Jens had to dismantle. Unfortunately, the roof of the building was resting on the shelving system... Grill Junior managed to get to safety by diving out of the window on the first floor. His old man was also unharmed, as was the shelving system, which from then on served SHERA well.

Revolutionary 20 MB:
In 1984, SHERA invested in the first multi-user computer: a Honeywell Bull with an incredible 20 MB hard drive for the proud price of 20,000 DM! That was revolutionary for such a small company at the time. Our current SHERA IT experts weren't even born back then and can't believe the 20 MB.

Basement instead of garage:
It all started with SHERA in the basement next to Ellen Grill's clothes rack. This is where the first commercial goods were stored, with which Günther Grill supplied the dental laboratories in the region. Soon the first external warehouse was opened in the neighboring town and then in 1985 the move to Espohlstrasse 53 in Lemförde. Countless stones were moved, concrete poured, painting and crafting done until the SHERA basement child became a stately company. But thanks to the expansion space, there is still room for many more projects.

Save on the name with SHERA:
When looking for a catchy name, the founding couple thought that it would be cheaper to apply for trademark rights for just one name. SHERA® sounded really nice and they simply thought of it while drinking a bottle of Trollinger. You can then add anything to the name and automatically have the product name fully protected. For example, SHERA®Hard-Rock. Pretty clever, isn't it? All speculation about former lovers or that SHERA is an abbreviation for something is completely wrong.

Cardboard box theft in the supermarket:
The first customers arrived and the first orders had to be sent out. Günther Grill definitely didn't want to invest the meager start-up capital (see Valentine's Day 1983) in elaborate packaging. Off to the local supermarket! They had boxes of all sizes for free. Environmental protection was not the main focus when "reusing" these boxes at the time, but we learned from that. We still use the filling material we receive today. This saves resources and protects the environment at the same time.

Our first time:
SHERASON 925, an ultrasonic cleaner, was the first product that SHERA developed itself. Why buy expensively when you can do it much better yourself? This classic product is still available at SHERA today. The ultrasonic cleaner is also ideal for cleaning employees' glasses or jewelry.

X-ray from the 17th century:
The tooth worm as a tormentor of hell is a masterpiece of wood carving from the 17th century. Like an x-ray, it shows the cause of bad toothache caused by tooth decay. The depiction is about 10 centimeters high and is made of ivory. A dental technician colleague thought that it could also be made in plaster and started to reproduce it in SHERA style. It looked really good in ivory-colored SHERA plaster and it held. SHERA dental plasters are also super reliable and do not splinter, even when it is delicate.

The first dental plaster from SHERA:
Günther Grill could no longer stand the moaning: the externally produced dental plaster that SHERA was selling was not that great. Customers complained. We'd better do it ourselves, decided the company boss, put together some know-how and off we went. It wasn't quite that easy to start with, but in 1990 SHERA finally proudly presented the first self-produced dental plaster: SHERASTONE was born. More than 30 years later, SHERA is one of the market leaders in the field of dental plaster and has a range that includes 24 plasters in many colors. And we still love plaster like we did on the first day!

Quite patent:
A lot of tinkering, researching, trying things out, thinking and starting again from the beginning - that's more or less how it was until SHERA was able to proudly register its first patent in 1984. For a casting investment material for making casting molds. Investment materials are still our passion today. We have nine reliable special investment materials for dental technology that have proven themselves and are used successfully in dental laboratories around the world.

Without words - company founder Günther Grill at work:
Unfortunately, we still don't know who made these wonderful drawings. They are an absolutely realistic representation of current research methods...

From Lemförde to the whole world:
SHERA has been operating internationally from day one. The first delivery abroad went to Belgium in 1983. Trade relations with Italy and Poland followed shortly thereafter. Today, we export to more than 70 countries worldwide through our dealers - from Canada to Australia, from Finland to South Africa.

Why do we have an Oscar?:
Because we deserve it. Not for our acting skills, but for our excellent performance as a medium-sized company. We won the national award straight away at the Oskar Patzelt Foundation's Grand Prize for German Medium-Sized Businesses. We are grateful and will keep up the good work.

3D printing for all dental laboratories:
At the IDS 2015, we introduced the first 3D printers for desktop use in the dental world with SHERAeco-print. Where previously there was space for giant printers, from now on a corner of the desk was sufficient. With SHERA, 3D printing quickly became precise and affordable in dental technology.

From car washer to successful entrepreneur:
Having barely survived his youth (see Shelf of Death!), Jens Grill was able to follow in his father's footsteps as managing director of SHERA in August 2001. He already knew the family business inside and out. As a teenager, he supplemented his pocket money at SHERA - as a car washer on Fridays, as a production assistant during the holidays or as a delivery driver during his studies. He has now successfully developed the company further and is still doing so.

From ironing and a strand:
In 2001, Ellen Grill-Mannes hung her textile company on this hanger in order to officially become involved in SHERA's management. As the founder of the company "GM-Team", she was the main earner in the family of four in the early years. This security made SHERA's success story possible in the first place. It takes time for a company to become established and start making its first profits. During this time, you need a lot of patience and people who pull together. Fortunately, Günther and Ellen had the patience and each other.

Scratch-off letters and printer’s ink:
SHERA's first product catalog had headings made of scratch-off letters - what a job. But in 1983 there was no talk of design software for extensive catalogs. Things became a little more convenient with the introduction of the Heidelberg offset printing press, which Shera boss Günther Grill got at an auction. Following the motto "You can do it yourself", he learned the printing trade on the side and printed SHERA's first own advertising leaflets and catalogs in many night shifts. Today we save ourselves the printer's ink and offer the 136-page SHERA catalog to anyone interested for download. This is another way we are contributing to sustainability and conserving resources.

That’s when it clicked:
Dental shopping is completely normal today. But in 2006 we were still very excited to see how our brand new online shop for dental technology products would do. Then something clicked and today our convenient online shop is a real box office hit.