Photo Radio Wegert
| Photo Radio Wegert branch | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1930 |
| resolution | 2005 bankruptcy |
| Seat | Berlin |
| management | Christian John von Freyend |
| Number of employees | 250 |
| sales | 1.0 billion euros |
| Branch | Photo and radio equipment |
The photo store chain Foto-Radio-Wegert Filial GmbH & Co. KG (short form: Wegert ) was a retail chain founded in 1930 and headquartered in Berlin that went bankrupt in January 2005 .
The company was founded by Egon Wegert in 1930 as a phototechnical laboratory, which within a short period of time had 150 employees. The first shop was opened in 1945 after the Second World War . By 1968 the number of branches increased to 20, making it the Berlin market leader.
expansion
In the company's fiftieth year, sons Michael Wegert and Matthias Wegert took over management of the company. In 1988 the naming rights for “ProMarkt” for Berlin were taken over by Phora Wessendorf and the first ProMarkt was opened. In 1989, when the border was opened, Swiss Interdiscount took a 45% stake in the company. In Berlin, the Wegert brothers also ran a number of music stores under the name City Music .
In the course of reunification, the company acquired 44 HO branches in 1991 and converted them into Wegert branches. Two years later the Wegert brothers bought back the Interdiscount stake in the company.
In 1997 the company already had 100 Foto-Radio-Wegert branches and 33 ProMarkets in Berlin and the new federal states . The British Kingfisher Group acquired 60% of the company in 1998. This year, Phora Wessendorf and ProMarkt (Bremen) with 29 stores in Germany, Austria and Luxembourg , as well as the MakroMarkt brand, were taken over.
Due to differences over the future business direction of the chain, the Wegert brothers sold their 40 percent stake in the company to Kingfisher in 2000. In the course of this takeover, the name of the holding company for the Foto-Radio-Wegert branches and ProMarkts was changed to ProMarkt Holding GmbH & Co. KG . In the period that followed, the company expanded primarily in northern and western Germany under the name of MakroMarkt .
In the 2001/2002 financial year (March 2001 to February 2002) the holding company achieved sales of 949 million euros with 92 ProMarkt branches and 93 Foto-Radio-Wegert branches with 3500 employees. At the end of the financial year, the holding posted a loss of 42.5 million euros.
division
At the beginning of 2003 Kingfisher announced that the Wegert brothers would buy back the company from them for EUR 1. With this deal, the Wegerts received 55 million euros from Kingfisher to strengthen the company's financial base. The 55 million euros corresponded to the approximate sum of the expected loss for the 2002/2003 financial year.
On May 1, 2003 Foto-Radio-Wegert took over the ten Berlin branches of Photo Dose and integrated them into the company. In November, ProMarkt and Foto-Radio-Wegert parted ways when the former sales manager Christian John von Freyend took over Foto-Radio-Wegert Filial GmbH & Co KG for one euro. BHG Color & Print GmbH & Co. KG from Heidelberg took over the photo laboratory .
insolvency
Almost six months after Christian John von Freyend took over the branches, 52 branches were closed from December 30, 2004 to January 4, 2005. After the opening of the insolvency proceedings , the remaining branches were sold to the retail chain O.K.-Foto .
Sponsorship
In 2001 Foto-Radio-Wegert GmbH & Co KG sponsored the Berlin photo competition Fotomarathon .
Web links
- Company history . ( PDF 20.86 kB ( Memento from February 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on October 12, 2012]).
- Foto-Radio-Wegert logo at Getty Images
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cay Dobberke: Groove backwards . Ed .: Der Tagesspiegel . ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ↑ Welt Online (ed.): The story of Foto-Wegert . January 8, 2005 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ↑ a b c Welt Online (ed.): Promarkt chain sold for one euro . Ex-owners Michael and Matthias Wegert now want to renovate the company. 92 branches and 93 Wegert photo shops are affected. January 17, 2003 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ↑ Welt Online (ed.): Wegert buys retail chain Pro-Markt for one euro . Price war in electronics retailing forces British Kingfisher group to withdraw - 185 branches with 3,500 employees affected. January 18, 2003 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ↑ World of Photo (Ed.): ProMarkt takes over Photo Dose branches in Berlin . April 11, 2003 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ↑ ChannelPartner Online (ed.): Promarkt subsidiary Wegert buys ten additional branches . April 11, 2003 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Welt Online (ed.): Photo chain Wegert has to file for bankruptcy . Business continues in 32 branches - Verdi union: 170 employees face dismissal. January 6, 2005 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ^ Welt Online (Ed.): Careers in Berlin . March 28, 2004 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ↑ Welt Online (ed.): Photo Wegert closes 52 branches . January 5, 2003 ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
- ^ Association for Events eV (Ed.): 2001 Topic: Here I am human . ( HTML [accessed October 12, 2012]).
