C. Illies & Co.

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C. Illies & Co. (GmbH & Co.) KG
legal form GmbH & Co. KG
founding 1859
Seat Hamburg , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Carl Michael Illies (President and CEO)
Number of employees 282
sales 66 million euros
Branch Trade, Consulting
Website www.illies.com
As of December 31, 2016

C. Illies & Co. is a German trading company founded in 1859 with headquarters in Hamburg . It is considered to be one of the first and the oldest still existing German company in Japan . Today, the family company is the fifth generation of the global holding company C. Illies & Co. GmbH & Co. KG. C. Illies & Co. played a key role in the development of German-Japanese trade relations.

history

Carl Illies 1905

The company was founded in Nagasaki in 1859 by the German merchants Louis Kniffler and HM Gildemeister under Dutch protectorate as the Japanese trading company L. Kniffler & Co. (KK Irisu). It was the first German company in Japan. Gustav Reddelien took over the management from 1866 and Carl Illies followed him from 1870. 1868 was Louis Kniffler in Dusseldorf a branch L. Kniffler & Co., Dusseldorf opened. In 1880 L. Kniffler & Co. was dissolved after Louis Kniffler left. Carl Illies senior bought the company and ran it as C. Illies & Co. KG, Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka. At the same time the name of the Düsseldorf branch changed to C. Illies & Co. In 1887 the Tokyo branch and in 1888 the Hamburg branch was established as a shopping center, which in 1898 became the main branch of C. Illies & Co. After the death of Carl Illies senior, his son Carl, who had previously managed the Tokyo branch, continued the company under the same name.

C. Illies & Co. played a key role in the development of German-Japanese trade relations . In the first few decades, textiles , sugar , iron , lead , tin and weapons were sold in Japan and German books were translated into Dutch, which was better known to the Japanese. There were also maps and globes . Export goods were silk, copper, camphor, beeswax and vegetable wax and, increasingly, tea . From 1870 onwards, imports shifted from consumer goods to production goods. C. Illies & Co. performed pioneering services: they not only supplied machines for the production of textiles and paper, but also trained the Japanese in their operation. With the growth of Japanese industry , the demand for raw materials and semi-finished products increased . The trading house also supported the development of Japan by setting up scientific institutes, particularly in the field of medicine. In return, Japan increasingly offered industrial products for export in addition to raw materials .

After the First World War, reconstruction began in Japan and Germany in 1918. Further branches in Dairen, Mukden, Hsienking, Beijing and Manila were established. After the Second World War from 1945, the existing shops and branches also had to be rebuilt. The Japanese subsidiary became a subsidiary of the entire company on December 22, 1960.

Between 1967 and 1978, under the direction of Carl Jürgen Illies, the 1st son of Carl Illies junior, subsidiaries and offices were founded in Taipei, Manila, Hong Kong and Chicago under the direction of Carl Heinz Illies , son of Carl Jürgen Illies, as well as temporary activities in Middle East, especially in Saudi Arabia. In 1978 the Erex group with offices in Johannesburg , Durban , Cape Town and Harare was taken over.

From 1982 an extensive China network was established with additional offices in Shanghai , Hong Kong , Guangzhou , Harbin , Qingdao , Wuhan , Chengdu and Xiamen . In 1988 a purchasing office was set up in Vicenza, Italy and in 1991 the Vietnam offices were reopened as part of the Doi Moi process.

Under the management of C. Illies & Co. by André Piédavent, Rolf Strerath and Carl Michael Illies, the son of Carl Heinz Illies, activities began in Kazakhstan and Russia in 2003 with a focus on agricultural and food technology as well as the production of building materials were set. After Dr. Frank Oberndorff joined the management team in 2006, when Illies Engineering India PTY was founded. based in Mumbai and an operating facility in Abu Dhabi , United Arab Emirates.

In 2009 the company celebrated its 150th anniversary.

The enterprise

Today, C. Illies & Co. (GmbH & Co.) KG is a holding company and a globally operating trading company and consulting company specializing in the sale of capital goods and technologies as well as project management for textiles, plastics, metals, paper and pharmaceuticals and packaging industry in Asian markets. C. Illies & Co. has 13 branches in Asia and is divided into various subsidiaries.

Subsidiaries

  • C. Illies & Co. Handelsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg
  • C. Illies Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Shanghai
  • C. Illies & Co. Maschinenhandels GmbH, Hamburg
  • CICO Engineering Co. Ltd., Hong Kong
  • Illies East Asia Ltd., Hong Kong
  • Illies Engineering (Taipei) Ltd., Taipei
  • Illies Engineering (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., Ho Chi Minh City
  • KK Irisu, Tokyo
  • C. Illies & Co KK Japan, Tokyo
  • Korea Illies Engineering Co. Ltd., Seoul
  • PT Illies Engineering Indonesia, Jakarta

Status as the oldest German company in Japan

The company is sometimes perceived by the general public as the oldest German company in Japan. A press report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the company's 125th birthday, which was published on October 10, 1984 under the title The oldest German trading house in Japan , contributed to this. To mark the company's 150th anniversary in 2011, two volumes were published that deal with the company's history. This is the book Handel ist Wandel - 150 years of C. Illies & Co , published by Piper Verlag in Munich and created in collaboration with the Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte eV , as well as self-published by Kikkawa, Takeo: C. Illies & Co. - Die Beginnings in Japan / Irisu 150nen - Reimeiki no kioku .

Heinrich Menkhaus, Professor of Japanese Law, doubts the correctness of the claim in his review of the two works. This is mainly due to the lack of documents and the sometimes complicated legal situation at that time. L. Kniffler & Co., the predecessor company of Carl Illies & Co., was founded on the one hand under Dutch law and was therefore either a Dutch or Japanese company, depending on the opinion, on the other hand it is unclear how L. Kniffler & Co. C Illies & Co. emerged. Another problem is the question of when the company became a company under German law. Accordingly, Simon, Evers & Co., founded in 1873 by a former employee of L. Kniffler & Co., could be considered the oldest German company in Japan. Further research is required to finally clarify this question.

literature

  • Johannes Bähr, Jörg Lesczenski, Katja Schmidtpott: Trade is change - 150 years of C. Illies & Co. Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-492-05322-8 . (Reviews: Japan Market , H-Net )
  • Käthe Molsen: C. Illies & Co., 1859–1959: a contribution to the history of German-Japanese trade . Publisher Hanseatischer Merkur, 1959.
  • Max Eli: Business Success in Japan: How German Companies Seize Opportunities: Instructions for Increasing German Economic Activities in Japan. Gabler, 2004, pp. 13, 111-112.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Federal Gazette : Consolidated financial statements for the financial year from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016.
  2. ^ A b Heinrich Menkhaus: C. Illies & Co. - The oldest German company in Japan ?! In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 1 , 2011, p. 28 ( oag.jp [PDF]).
  3. ↑ Max Eli: Business Success in Japan: How German Companies Seize Opportunities . Gabler, 2004, ISBN 3-409-12586-8 , pp. 111 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ^ A b c Heinrich Menkhaus: C. Illies & Co. - The oldest German company in Japan ?! In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens (Hrsg.): OAG Notes . No. 1 , 2011, p. 34 f . ( oag.jp [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Erich Batzer, Erich Greipl, Helmut Laumer: The German import and export trade in developing countries . Duncker & Humblot, 1971, ISBN 3-428-02626-8 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  6. ↑ History on the company website ( Memento from December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on July 5, 2016)