Interview with the founder of Egeglas: Gunnar Egenolff. Comment contest!

Hello Gunnar, in 2011 at the very first Hookah Battle, one of the participants brought some very unusual glass hookah, it was Egeglas and its really impressed me.

I think that its will be pretty interesting to tell your story to our international business hookah community. I have a traditional first question: please tell a story how did you enter the hookah industry?

Hi Stan! Thank you for the photo. That wakes up nice memories. Looking back, I think I had a lot of luck. I was working for Karlsruher Glastechnisches Werk, who is the leading manufacturer of isolating containers in Germany. My boss allowed me to do some own business in my free time. My first idea was to make a bong. I put quite some effort in it. I took a tube with 5 mm wall thickness, ground my own taper joints and gave the tobacco funnel a complicatet color pattern. I put it on ebay for sale at auction and it was sold for 1 €.

But the buyer was a nice guy. He sent my a picture of a hookah and recommended me to try to sell something like this.

So I did. My first hookah was also sold for 1 €, but this buyer was anice guy too.

He presentet his new hookah at shisha-forum.de and asked me to join the discussion.

This way I got contact to experienced smokers. Many of them ordered custom pieces from me.

That is how I learned to make better hookahs and earned my first money.

Picture of Gunnar when he started at 2008:

So, you became the member of German hookah community via forum. But have you become a hookah lover? Do you smoke hookah this days? If yes, what is your favorite tobacco brands and flavors?

Saying “that I have become a hookah lover” would be too much. I started smoking because of my professional interest. I did not smoke at all before and I hate the smell of cigarettes. But I can enjoy a good hookah session with some friends. Sometimes I catch myself inhaling the smoke greedily, which must be caused by the nicotine. I have to be careful not to smoke too much, otherwise I tend to get pain in the head. My favourite flavours are the fresh and fruity ones like grapefruit or lime. I am still hoping to find an apple tobacco that does not taste like anise.

Well, if you are looking for the apple flavor without anise and with soft nicotine level, I can recommend you Spectrum tobacco “Granny Apple”. I think they will read this article and maybe send you some sample.

Next question: When have you created the “Egeglas” brand? Which idea you put in this naming? When was the moment where you realized that its a serious business which need your full time?

  Spectrum Tobacco sounds good, but it seems not to be available inGermany. But thank you for that tip.The egeglas name and logo is much older than my business. I created this during my glassblower education back in 2002.

The idea is simply a combination of my name and glass. The logo is just a “g” and an “e” combined, which are my initials. When I founded the company, I kept my job at KGW for one more year. Then I decided to go fully self-employed, but I still do some work for them. Right now the hookah business is not going very well because of the pandemic and of course the war, so it is good to have a second income driver.  

Since you mentioned it. I would like to ask: what is your opinion regarding current Russia-Ukraine-Europe situation in a context of hookah business and hookah community?

I am angry. This war must be stopped. I do not know what your leaders think they can achieve, but it cannot be worth the price. There are people dying and losing their homes. Even in my small town we are receiving hundreds of refugees. I thought about stopping deliveries to Russia, even if it makes no difference. But my friend in Moscow told me (without being asked) that most of you are against this war too. I believe him and I hope you will find a way to summon back your army.

In how many countries do you have a distributors at the moment? Which country have the biggest number of sale of your products?

When I started making Laetitia, Russia became the biggest market for me. By far. I think this is because you guys are very creative when it comes to filling the bottle with fruits, so you may like the big opening. I also have distribution partners in America, but most of the world I deliver directly to. This way I learned that there are Russians living all over the world.

When did you face for the very first time with counterfeiting of your product?

I think it was 2012, when I saw the first time a chinese produced hookah that looked very similar to my Ratio model.

That made me feel proud. Much later, my friend in Moscow told me that there are all kinds of hookah sold under the name egeglas. This is sad, but I do not care too much. I have better things to do than fighting against fakers. Also the smart people will know the difference.

One of the members of our business community members have a hookah lounge in St. Petersburg, Russia (The Office Nargilia Lounge). They do some nice “hookah cocktails” based on your hookahs.

Ability to make a nice composition inside hookah base is your great competitive advantage. And I can say its more popular as a service in hookah lounges than for home smokers. Didnt you thought to focus your product for hookah lounges? Like:

– provide possible cocktails menu

– create a map of lounges who use your product

– make special offers for lounges and their guests

– warranty service (broken parts replacement special offer)

How many workers do you have in Egeglas company? Do you have a marketing director? Do you make any kind of marketing?

I work alone. I am just a simple glassblower. I like most selling to traders, so they can take care of the marketing.

There are some lounges who use Hoob hookahs to create a nice cocktails. Moreover some famous hookah influencer from Russia – Vladimir Denezhkin created a special menu with it:

I think Hoob hookah is your main competitor in the lounge segment. What do you think about Hoob hookahs?

First time I see a Hoob. I am pretty sure the cube vase is made of acrylic plastics. But that is not my business.

I think that the main popularity of glass hookahs been in 2012-2015 years, after that market change back to the classic hookahs. What do you thing about it? Do you feel the changes of market during last 7 years?

I introduced Laetitia in 2016 wich is only partially made of glass. This one is more popular than everything I made before. May be this fits to the trend you mentioned.

Which future plans do you have? Any new models?

I am experimenting with a new funnel right now and I have ideas for several new hookahs.

Comment contest! Tell about you expirience with a cocktail hookahs and what do you think about Egeglas brand. The author of comment with the highest rating on 31st May 2022 16:00 will get a new funnel bowl from Egeglas.