Garant Group
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Garant Group
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1956 |
| Seat | Rheda-Wiedenbrück |
| management | Torsten Goldbecker, Jens Hölper (managing director) |
| Branch | trade |
| Website | www.garant-gruppe.de |
The Garant Group is a marketing and purchasing association founded in 1956 for medium-sized furniture, kitchen and equipment retailers as well as for the plumbing and heating trade. The company, based in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, looks after 1758 retail partners (as of November 2013), making it one of the largest purchasing groups in Germany. The Garant Group is active in 19 countries; the international activities have been coordinated by Garant Holding International S.A., based in Luxembourg, since 2012.
History of the company
Foundation and early years
The interior designer Josef Lauten (1910–1993) founded the company "Architekt Josef Lauten" in 1937, a design office for furniture. In 1956 Lauten began to market its self-designed furniture collections under the umbrella of "Garant-Möbel Architekt Josef Lauten" through medium-sized furniture dealers. It started with a customer base of 184 dealers. Joint purchasing and joint marketing is still the basis of the Garant Group today. From 1959 to 1962 the number of members rose to 222, but the company ran into a crisis in 1963. As a result of the declining economic growth under Ludwig Erhard, sales collapsed by 40 percent. As a result, bulk purchases were stepped up in order to improve purchasing conditions. The company recovered by 1966 and developed from a pure purchasing association into a comprehensive service provider for the industry. Services were now organized centrally, e.g. B. Central settlement or brand maintenance.
Growth and differentiation
In 1972 the businessman Hans-Dieter Lauten, successor and son of the founder Josef Lauten, joined the company. Under his direction, other companies were founded in order to organize the extensive services efficiently. In 1975, for example, the Garant-Möbel Service GmbH & Co. KG was founded as the central regulatory body of the group, followed in 1981 by the Garant-Möbel Marketing Lauten GmbH. In 1981, for the 25th anniversary, the administration was relocated to a modern building at Hauptstrasse 143 in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, which is still the company's headquarters today. In 1986 the group consisted of 400 medium-sized dealers, but the growth laws had been achieved by protecting the dealer's territory. "Garant Möbel 2000", a strategic company program, should generate new growth. The result is the "module strategy", a branded distribution company that started in 1986 with the brand "Garant für gute Wohnen". In 1987 kitchens were incorporated into the product portfolio and the "Küchen Areal" brand was established. In the following years new sales and area concepts were designed. In 1998, the company's own A2 Forum was inaugurated in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Since then - in addition to regional events - the Garant Group's trade fairs, exhibitions and partner forums have taken place in the 12,000 square meter exhibition center. In October 2000 the district court of Rheda-Wiedenbrück registered Garant-Möbel-Holding AG as the group's new parent company. Hans-Dieter Lauten became CEO. Another member of the board is Franz Hampel, who has been with the group since 1975 and has acted as group manager since 1993.
Current development
In 2011, efforts to gain a foothold on the Internet intensified. At a strategy conference of the company, the Garant Chefforum 2011 in Essen, a concept was presented how each dealer in the group can implement an individual website through the association. In addition, a central portal was set up to sell dealers' exhibition goods online to end customers. On June 1, 2012, the supervisory board appointed new board members: Torsten Goldbecker has since been responsible for the areas of finance, organization, central settlement and personnel, while Jens Hölper is responsible for marketing and sales. On 14./15. In June 2013, the service portal moebelwelten.de was presented at the Chefforum in Heidelberg, which conveys ideas for furnishing and directs end customers directly to national trading partners. During the Heidelberg event, the group also said goodbye to the term "furniture" in the name of the Garant Möbel Group, as the expansion in the sanitary specialist trade could no longer be reconciled with it. A brand relaunch was presented at the same time. The umbrella company Garant Holding GmbH emerged from Garant-Möbel-Holding AG on May 28, 2013 through a change of legal form. On 13./14. In September 2013, the Garant Group, in cooperation with the city of Rheda-Wiedenbrück, organized the first "Specialist Congress for Active Climate Protection" in the A2 Forum in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, which Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker opened.
Josef Lauten Foundation
The Garant Group is socially committed through the Josef Lauten Foundation, which was founded in 1990 by Josef Lauten. The official deed of foundation, issued by the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, dated July 11, 1990. According to the statutes, the Josef Lauten Foundation promotes education, upbringing, art and culture. The founder, Josef Lauten, wanted above all to support the design, manufacture and sale of furniture and home furnishings. Since it was founded, the foundation has been in close contact with the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences, interior design course, and the furniture trade college in Cologne (MÖFA). These collaborations were laid down in the foundation's statutes. In an annual change between the educational institutes anchored in the statutes, projects are sponsored that serve the educational objectives. The Foundation's prize has been awarded annually in the form of a trophy since 1992.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ GARANT Group relies on stable sales (2013) ( Memento from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.nw-news.de/owl/regionale_wirtschaft/6769387_Garant-Moebel_mit_neuer_Struktur.html
- ↑ http://www.kuecheundarchitektur.de/news/garant-international-expandiert-china
- ↑ http://www.moebelkultur.de/news/garant-start_auf_dem_chinesischen_markt/19600.html
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.raumeinrichtungen.de/business/artikel-record_id-39795-Wirtschaft.htm
- ↑ 50 years of Garant-Möbel ( Memento from August 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ dds-online: 50 years of Garant-Möbel ( Memento from August 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ GARANT-MÖBEL: Change in the board (2012) ( Memento from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.kuecheundarchitektur.de/news/markenumstellung-der-garant-gruppe
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.rhewie-eg.de/index.php/menue-presse/114-fachkongress-energiedienstleistungen-im-a2-forum
- ↑ http://www.energieagentur.nrw.de/biomasse/fachkongress-energie-efficient-nutzen-22548-22726.asp
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.mik.nrw.de/nc/stiftungsverzeichnis-fuer-das-land-nrw/alle-stiftungen.html?tx_szstiftungsvz_pi1%5Bpage%5D=77&tx_szstiftungsvz_pi1%5Bsingle%5D=1&tx_szstiftungsvz90 .5D=5Bu=3dpi1% 5Bu
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
