Eggers & Franke
| Eggers & Franke Holding GmbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1804 |
| Seat | Bremen |
| Website | www.ef-gruppe.de |
Eggers & Franke is a traditional import trading company for wines and spirits based in Bremen . The company, which was founded in 1804, is one of the leading suppliers of high-quality wines in Germany and forms the most important division of the Eggers & Franke Holding GmbH group of companies of the same name, to which, in addition to Eggers & Franke, the Bremen wine trading companies Ludwig von Kapff GmbH , Joh.Eggers Sohn GmbH , Reidemeister & Ulrichs GmbH, Ruyter & Ast GmbH and, since August 2011, the company Weinhaus Stratmann, Zeven belong.
Products
Eggers & Franke is the exclusive sales partner of well-known international wine and spirits brands in Germany. These include the German wine houses Diehl and Leitz, Marqués de Riscal from Rioja, Baron Philippe de Rothschild from France, Mateus Rosé from Portugal, Peter Lehmann Wines and Yellow Tail from Australia, KWV Holdings from South Africa, the Danish Bitter Gammel Dansk and Aquavite Lysholm Line from Norway as well as Maltese Cross and Aalborg Jubilaeums Akvavit from Denmark, as well as the brandies , sherries , wines and ports from Osborne . (As of November 2016)
Company history
1804 to 1850
Eggers & Franke was founded on December 1, 1804 by Georg Heinrich Eggers (1780–1825) and Johann Heinrich Christian Franke (1779–1825) in Bremen. The company was initially based in Georg Heinrich Eggers's parents' house on Schlachte 7. His father was the owner of the wine store Joh. Eggers Sohn, founded in 1773 and named after him since 1777 . His new partner had previously also worked in the wine trade in Bremen. In 1807 the Eggers & Franke company moved into its own storage and office space in Doventorstraße 8/9 for the first time. In the following year Johann Heinrich Christian Franke married a sister Georg Heinrich Eggers. Descendants from this connection determined the fate of the company until 1919.
As a free port and Hanseatic city, Bremen played a dominant role in the trade in wine and spirits in northern Germany by the end of the 17th century at the latest. However, at the time the company was founded, the international trade in goods was severely hindered during the so-called French era by the sea blockade of the continent by England and finally the French occupation of Bremen, so that Eggers & Franke's business with wines and spirits, especially from the southern French ports , only clearly revived in 1813, after the liberation of Bremen. In addition to the wine trading port of Bordeaux , the Sète trading center on the French Mediterranean coast was particularly important for the Eggers & Franke company from the 20s of the 19th century . Deliveries of goods from Bayonne, Málaga and Livorno were also recorded in the books for this period, and from 1823 the import of rum from the Caribbean.
The two founders of the company died within a year in 1825. The business was then continued by their widows until in 1834 Johann Heinrich Ficke, a cousin of the Eggers family, and in 1836 Georg Julius Franke (1812–1894), a son of the company founder, were accepted as partners. The latter subsequently took over the shares of his mother, who died in 1837, and paid off his siblings. In 1843 he also took over the shares from the widow Georg Heinrich Eggers. On January 1, 1845, Eggers & Franke became a partner in Johann Friedrich Brems's Leipzig wine shop. Johann Heinrich Ficke moved to Leipzig in 1846. The investment in the important trade fair city strengthened business with Central and Eastern Germany. The opening of the first railway line from Bremen to Hanover in December 1847 brought the central German inland closer to the Hanseatic city. Deliveries to Königsberg and Poland also increased in importance during this period.
1850 to 1918
Eggers & Franke owes its rise to one of the most important rum dealers from Jamaica , which began in the middle of the 19th century, thanks to Ficke's friendly relationship with the Bremen import trading company HC Finke, which had established itself in Kingston with a branch and consular powers . In the trade in Caribbean rum, Bremen and the Eggers & Franke company played a dominant role not only for Germany, but also for large parts of continental Europe. The rapidly growing business necessitated extensive renovations and new buildings in Doventorstrasse as well as newly acquired buildings and land in Neuenstrasse 41–43 and Töferbohmstrasse between 1849 and 1868.
In 1874, Johann August Franke (1848–1918), the third generation of the family, joined the company as partners. The incorporation of Bremen into the German customs area in 1888 marked an important turning point for Bremen's import trade. It is true that it opened up a new business area in the trade in German wine, the importance of which for the Eggers & Franke company, in addition to the southern wines from Jerez and Málaga, as well as wines from Rioja and Tarragona , which were popular at the time , increased sharply until the First World War . However, the loss of customs privileges led to the collapse of Bremen's important rum trade with other European countries almost overnight. Nevertheless, the domestic trade in rum, its blending and bottling remained an important line of business for Eggers & Franke until 2001. Since 1880 Johann August Franke has represented his profession in particular in specialist committees on customs and tariff issues in the Chamber of Commerce. In 1888 he was sent to the Bremen citizenship as a representative of the merchant class , of which he was a member until his death in 1918.
The outbreak of World War I ended the prosperous time for the Bremen wine trade. Foreign trade and especially sea trade collapsed within a short time, the stocks of Eggers & Franke quickly ran out and those of the employees who were fit for military service were drafted. Johann August Franke died on October 24, 1918 after a long illness. His intended successor son did not return alive from the war. Even after the end of the war in November 1918, the situation did not initially improve.
1919 to 1932
On April 1, 1919, the widow of the last owner of the company sells Eggers & Franke, the land and buildings, including inventory, to the innkeeper Wilhelm Oskar Richard Meier (1880–1935) for 100,000 marks. The long-time business friend of the house has been running a pub in the Bahnhofstrasse in Bremen since 1904 and also a wine and liqueur business he took over from him in 1909, for which he purchased raw materials from Eggers & Franke. In the same year, Oskar Richard Meier modernized the outdated systems from Eggers & Franke and replaced some of them with more modern technical equipment from his factory in Bahnhofstrasse. Also in 1919, Christian Babel (1889–1971), who had been with the company since 1904, was appointed authorized signatory by him.
The years after the First World War up to the currency reform were determined by strict compulsory management and quotas for the wine and spirits trade. Scarce foreign exchange, boycotts from abroad and high tariffs left practically no room for the import trade in wine. For this reason, Eggers & Franke switched to the production of rum blend during this time. Distilleries in Verden, Etzhorn and Gladbach were acquired to increase the quotas for the monopoly fuel required for this . It was not until 1924 that import trade was revived with the end of hyperinflation and new trade agreements with foreign countries. Important imported products of this time were red and white wines and especially dessert wines from Spain, as well as Chilean red wine. The import of rum and the production of rum blends remained an important mainstay. Extensive renovations and extensions in Neuenstrasse and on newly acquired buildings in Grafenstrasse and, on the direct Weser front, in Grossenstrasse, increased the available storage space to up to 17,000 m² by 1929. For the year of the global economic crisis , which the company survived unscathed despite a sharp drop in demand, the company chronicle of Eggers & Franke lists 52 employees.
1933 to 1945
After 1933, foreign exchange management, quotas and import stoppages as well as protectionist constraints in favor of German viticulture put a heavy burden on import trade, especially those with France. Oskar Richard Meier died in 1935 and his widow Berta Meier continued the business. Import trade with countries such as Spain, Italy and Greece, which had also fallen to a low point in 1933, can recover again by 1939.
In 1937 Eggers & Franke expanded its company premises once more to include buildings at Stephaniekirchhof and in Großenstrasse to a total of 20,890 m² of storage space.
In the first two years of the Second World War , the turnover of goods in the Bremen wine trade increased thanks to imports from allied or conquered countries and increasing deliveries to the Wehrmacht. At the same time, however, the labor force became scarce. Even before the war, shipments dominated, but from 1940 onwards Eggers & Franke delivered goods mainly in tank cars or wagons by rail. At the same time, deliveries in bottles increased sharply, so that in 1941 the first automatic filling system was installed.
In 1943 the buildings in Neuenstraße 41/43, behind Doventorstraße 8/9 and in Grafenstraße 30 were destroyed in an air raid. Eggers & Franke had previously had alternative storage facilities in Bückeburg , Elze / Hann, in particular for the highly flammable high-proof goods . and Eisleben in Thuringia. After this initial destruction, additional storage rooms were rented in Löningen , Kulmbach , Scheeßel and Langwedel .
The changed war situation brought wine and spirits imports to a noticeable standstill in 1944. The de facto "end" for Eggers & Franke was the heavy air raid on Bremen in 1944 , in which the remaining camps on Grossenstrasse, Stephaniekirchhof and Neuenstrasse were destroyed, with the exception of a few stocks in the basement. Nevertheless, the operation could be maintained with deliveries from the alternative camps until these were cut off by the advancing Allied troops. The head of the company, Carl J. Meier, was called up for military service in 1939 and from 1942 to 1945, and in 1940/41 he was engaged as a civilian agent for purchases by the Wehrmacht in France.
1945 to 1975
With the exception of the inner-city land, Eggers & Franke had almost no assets at the end of the war. The Bremen office and packing houses along with their inventory and stocks had been destroyed by air raids, the satellite camps in Elze and Bückeburg were plundered in the last days of the war. The company in Eisleben was lost to Eggers & Franke due to the upcoming division of Europe, as were important sales markets - before 1939, two thirds of Eggers & Franke's sales were in areas east of the Elbe. There were initially no import opportunities for wine and spirits and the import of wine was to remain quota for a long time after the normalization of economic life after the currency reform in 1948.
Nevertheless, Eggers & Franke made a new start. In 1945, employees erected a provisional one-story building above the cellars of Neuenstrasse 45. No permit was obtained for the reconstruction of the buildings on the Weser due to the rededication of the Stephaniviertel as a residential area. For this purpose, it was built in 1948 on the property behind Doventorstrasse. 8–9 a first six-story warehouse.
With the purchase of further plots between Doventorstrasse, Neuenstrasse and Töferbohmstrasse, a plot of land was finally rounded off on which the multi-storey warehouse and office buildings with a basement were built in a total of seven construction phases by 1971, which Eggers & Franke used operationally until 1992. In 1978 the office moved to a neighboring office building at Töferbohmstrasse 8, which remained the company's headquarters until November 2006.
Jamaica rum remained an important line of business for Eggers & Franke. Shortly before the start of the war, Carl J. Meier and his mother founded the Bremer Rum-Contor B. Meier Wwe. & Sohn company in 1938 to produce rum and rum blends under the Robinson brand based on the novel hero Robinson Crusoe by the English writer Daniel Defoe . Rum under the Robinson brand, which is now owned by the Underberg company, was one of the main successes of the Eggers & Franke company until the 1970s, and the sale in small portion bottles in particular was considered innovative and extremely strong. Since 1948, sales have been carried out via independent sales representatives who are increasingly supported by their own sales staff.
Refining and bottling under one's own brand or a retail brand formed the core of the spirits business in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, there were well-known distribution brands such as Brandy 103 from Spain, whose distribution was first taken over in 1972, and Angostura Aromatic Bitter , whose distribution rights had been with Franzius Henschen & Co., taken over in 1964, since the middle of the 19th century.
For a long time after the Second World War, the Eggers & Franke company ran the wine business almost exclusively in barrels or tank wagons. Bottling and selling in bottles gained in importance from the 1960s onwards, but this was already exceeded by the import of bottled goods in the 1970s. From the mid-1970s, Eggers & Franke also became a branded sales partner in the wine trade, with well-known producers such as Torres from Spain and Frescobaldi from Italy, which was first sold in 1975. In addition, wines from Austria and South Africa gained in importance.
1976 to 2007
Carl died on November 29, 1976. J. Meier. His eldest son Wilhelm F. Meier (* 1935), who has been with the company since 1961 and has been a partner since 1968, takes over management together with the son of long-time authorized signatory Ernst-Christian Babel. In the 1980s, the business shifted significantly in favor of high-quality wines from internationally known producers. In particular, the wines of the South African winegrowers' cooperative KWV Holdings , with which they set up a mail order company under the name Ruyter & Ast, gained in importance . In 1992 the Eggers & Franke company moved into a new, modern high-bay warehouse in the Bremen freight center .
In 1996 KWV acquired the majority of the company shares in Eggers & Franke from the Meier family. In 2001 Johann Christoph Meier (* 1969) succeeded his father Wilhelm F. Meier in the executive chair. In the same year, the company's own bottling of spirits and wines was stopped and the systems were sold. In 2003 the company Eggers & Franke acquired name and trademark rights from the Bremer wine trading company Joh. Eggers Sohn , which was founded in 1773 and which had filed for bankruptcy in 2002. At the ProWein trade fair in 2005, this traditional company presented a new, innovative range for the specialist wine trade. Shortly afterwards, Eggers & Franke took over 100% of the shares in the mail order company Ludwig von Kapff GmbH, founded in Bremen in 1692, and in the summer of the same year the traditional wine importer Reidemeister & Ulrichs GmbH.
Eggers & Franke was honored with the title of Importer of the Year at the Mundus Vini international wine competition in 2002 and 2005 for their range .
2008 until today
In 2008 Racke GmbH & Co. KG, Bingen, acquired the majority of the group of companies. She brought an extensive trading business with her own and third-party wine brands into the company, which briefly operated under the name Racke / Eggers & Franke Group. Since 2008, the Eggers & Franke company has mainly dealt with internationally known wine and spirits brands with the range retail trade, while the Reidemeister & Ulrichs and Joh. Eggers Sohn customers have focused on the specialist trade and catering sector.
In 2009 the Racke / Eggers & Franke Group took over the company DC Gesellschaft für Weinimporte, Rüdesheim (Nahe), which was merged with the company Reidemeister & Ulrichs GmbH. In December 2009, the Meier family again took over 100% of the shares in the group, which has been trading as Eggers & Franke Holding GmbH since 2010. In 2009 and 2010 distribution agreements were signed with major international spirits brands, including Osborne Brandys , Carlos I Brandy and Linie Aquavit . This significantly strengthened the spirits business. In 2011 Eggers & Franke Holding GmbH took over 100% of the shares in the specialist retail group Weinhaus Stratmann GmbH, Zeven, founded in 1960.
Germany's largest sparkling wine producer, Rotkäppchen-Mumm Sektkellereien , took over Eggers & Franke at the beginning of May 2018.
Web links
- Website of the Eggers & Franke Group
- Website of MUNDUSvini - The Great International Wine Competition
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sascha Speicher: The top 100 in the wine industry . In: Weinwirtschaft . Issue 4/2012 of February 17, 2012, p. 108.
- ^ Peter Voss in Bremer Handelsgüter - Wein , Verlag HM Hausschild 1997, p. 40.
- ↑ Eugen de Porre in 175 Years of Eggers & Franke . Festschrift, Verlag HM Hausschild 1979, p. 39.
- ↑ Eugen de Porre in 175 Years of Eggers & Franke . Festschrift, Verlag HM Hausschild 1979, p. 67.
- ^ Rolf Klein in 200 years of wine trading in Bremen . Meininger Verlag, Neustadt 2004, p. 8.
- ↑ http://www.mundusvini.de
- ↑ http://www.lebensmittelpraxis.de/handel/3315--u
- ↑ Takeover successfully completed Company press release, May 14, 2018