History of Herlitz AG
This article deals with the history of Herlitz AG , which traded as Pelikan AG from April 30, 2015 and as Pelikan Group GmbH since December 21, 2017 .
history
Foundation, 1904–1945
The Herlitz group of companies celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2004. It goes back to the founding of a paper and stationery wholesaler by the trained bookseller Carl Herlitz in Berlin-Schöneberg . The sole proprietorship Carl Herlitz was first listed in the Berlin address book in 1905 under “Representatives of foreign companies in the paper and office utensils industry”.
Carl Herlitz managed the small company for 31 years before he retired in 1935 for health reasons and died on February 12, 1939. After the company was taken over by their son Günter Herlitz , Herlitz expanded sales into the Mark Brandenburg region . Six employees were employed and the company moved to the vicinity of the Spittelmarkt in Berlin-Mitte .
After Günter Herlitz and his brother Walter Herlitz were drafted into the war on September 1, 1939, their mother Berta Herlitz temporarily took over the management and maintained customer relationships. In November 1943, the business premises were completely destroyed twice by the effects of the war, and business activities came to a standstill.
1945-1995
As early as the summer of 1945, business operations were resumed - initially in the basement in Berlin-Moabit - by Günter Herlitz, initially "all kinds of occasional offers" were sold. It was still possible to deliver to customers in the Mark Brandenburg.
During the Berlin blockade (1948/1949), the Carl Herlitz company was the only one of around 20 Berlin wholesalers to manage to procure a minimum of goods by air from West Germany . After the blockade was over, the range could be expanded. At the beginning of the 1950s the company already had 50 employees and was soon one of the most important wholesalers in Germany.
Due to the events of June 17, 1953 - traditional suppliers from Central Germany threatened to fail - the company began to build up its own production facilities, including for exercise books , drawing pads , letter pads, index cards and colored paper. As early as 1955, 60 tons of paper were processed per month. For political reasons, wholesalers could only supply customers in West Berlin . With a turnover of 2.2 million marks , 55 people could still be employed in 1955.
First attempts to sell own products in the rest of Germany in 1957/1958 failed. In 1960 the breakthrough came on the “West German market” with diaries ( notebooks ) and drawing pads with illustrated cover sheets, which was an absolute novelty at the time. They showed animal motifs and sports pictures that were brought out in collaboration with Professor Bernhard Grzimek and Harry Valérien . A separate sales organization for Germany was set up. In 1973 an assortment was added around the characters Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street , which are popular with children, and which continued to use the manufacturer beyond its capacity limit even after Christmas.
Since the currency reform in 1949, sales have doubled every four years - until 1994. The following sales figures show the development and thus the economic expansion of the company:
- 1960: 2.2 million euros
- 1969: 11.8 million euros
- 1972: 19.6 million euros
- 1974: 36.0 million euros
- 1980: 87.3 million euros
- 1985: 267 million euros
- 1990: 454 million euros
- 1994: 745 million euros
This expansion was reflected both in the change in the type of business and in the company's foreign activities. In 1972 the Carl Herlitz company was converted into a stock corporation, in 1974 the first high-bay warehouse with 6000 pallet spaces for finished goods was put into operation; the company had an annual average of 504 employees.
Herlitz Consult GmbH was founded in 1974 and in 1975 was commissioned to build a turnkey factory for exercise books in Baghdad . Including a bridge that was also built and a small mosque, this was the largest single order in the history of the Herlitz company (order volume: 38 million marks). On May 6, 1976, Carl-Herlitz AG became Herlitz AG.
Herlitz went public on the Berlin stock exchange on October 3, 1977, and at the end of the 1980s Herlitz International Trading (HIT) AG, which emerged from Herlitz Consult, went public itself. In 1978 the company Paul Zoecke GmbH / Berlin was taken over, so that the range was expanded to include greeting cards.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, the companies Vetter / Brensbach (fiber pens ), Böhler / Schwetzingen ( fountain pens ), Bentz-Papier / Düren (stationery equipment), Rema / Neukirchen vorm Wald (albums and folders), Spang / Esslingen am Neckar (wrapping paper) and Susy Card / Bargteheide (humor cards) bought. Herlitz was the first full-line of the PBS industry and geography ( "everything under one roof").
In 1985, the company moved into the shipping center in Berlin-Spandau , which at the time was the largest high-bay warehouse in the world with over 70,000 pallet spaces according to the Guinness Book of Records . In the mid-1980s, the first McPaper franchise stores were opened in Aachen , Augsburg and Ludwigsburg . In 1987 McPaper GmbH was founded together with the REWE-Leibrandt retail group and the jewelry chain Christ .
Foreign sales companies of the Herlitz company were set up in Austria (1977), the Netherlands (1977), Switzerland (1977), France (1980), Texas / USA (1981–1990), Poland (1992), Finland (1992), Hungary ( 1992) and the Czech Republic (1993). A new dispatch center was built in Falkensee from 1991 and put into operation in 1994.
After the farewell of the decades-long company boss and CEO Günter Herlitz , who took over the chairmanship of the supervisory board , there was a dispute between the two older brothers Peter and Heinz from 1988 onwards, which ended with Heinz Herlitz's departure in 1992. At the same time, however, the screw of expansion was overturned. The factory and warehouse in Falkensee are still oversized today. In 1992 the company achieved sales of 1.06 billion marks. In 1995 the historic high of 1.86 billion marks in sales was achieved.
While Klaus Herlitz established the Herlitz brand on the market with new ideas and campaigned for an environmentally conscious product range, the acquisition of a paper mill in Nizhny Novgorod / Russia in 1994/1995 by the CEO of HIT AG , Gerard Jaslowitzer, turned into a disaster, and entry into the real estate business failed.
1995-2000
In 1995 the board of directors included: Klaus Albig, Volker Bohlmann, Peter Franzke, Walter Gröling, Klaus Herlitz , Peter Herlitz (CEO), Detlef Stronk , Stephan Vocke and Karel de Vries. In 1996, the family-run, entrepreneurial company was gradually transformed into a management-run holding company under the new board spokesman, Jaslowitzer.
At the 1996 Annual General Meeting, Günter Herlitz was honored with a laudation for his life's work, he resigned from the Supervisory Board and was appointed honorary chairman. At the same time, the general meeting resolved to transform Herlitz AG into a holding company , to which Herlitz PBS AG, Herlitz Falkenhöh AG , HIT AG and McPaper AG belonged. Peter Herlitz took over the chairmanship of the holding company's supervisory board.
The Herlitz International Trading AG (HIT) was the early 1990s, the most successful subsidiary of Herlitz AG. The HIT AG was initially a minority, from 1995 majority shareholder of the Volga AG in Nizhny Novgorod. The CEO of HIT AG, Gérald Jaslowitzer, commented on the extraordinary successes of Wolga AG in Manager Magazin as follows: “In Russia, wood is 70 percent cheaper than in this country. The energy costs are only a fifth of the comparable costs in Scandinavia. Not to mention the wage costs: At the moment it doesn't matter whether we have 6,000 or 1,000 employees. ”And Jaslowitzer continues:“ No German company can keep up. The industry could disappear in Germany in the medium term. "
This report was translated into Russian two days later and was circulating in Nizhny Novgorod. The timber industry and the energy suppliers demanded prices in line with the market from now on, and the workers began to rebel. "Jaslowitzer had caused the greatest catastrophe in the company's history." "In total, the adventure Russia cost the company around 100 million marks."
At the beginning of July 1997, CEO Gerard Jaslowitzer had to vacate his post. The costly Russia adventure of the Berlin Herlitz AG claimed another victim: Peter Herlitz drew the consequences and resigned from all supervisory board positions in the group. Karel de Vries was elected as the new spokesman for the board. With his impetuous expansion policy, he lost control of the holding company through numerous company acquisitions at home and abroad and the opening of various branches in Eastern and Southern Europe. Driven by the idea of a global player , some ailing production companies in France (Manopa), the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany (Becker-Falken, Diplomat ) were bought up and sometimes closed after a short time due to unprofitability. De Vries' deficit in France cost the company 50 million marks alone. Despite everything, further branches were established across Europe and some of them closed again after a year or two (Yugoslavia, Portugal). Branches were also set up in Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Great Britain, Slovakia, Russia, Romania and Bulgaria.
In 1997 the company posted a loss of 51 million euros. Several external managers who were appointed under the new chairman of the supervisory board, Hans-Peter Friedrichsen, did not manage to turn around. Mc Paper was sold to Deutsche Post AG in 1998 . In 1999 Herlitz Falkenhöh AG was sold to RSE Projektmanagement AG from Hamburg. Herlitz then also parted with their remaining shares in Herlitz International Trading AG in 2000 . The buyer was Blake International Limited (British Virgin Islands); the company was later renamed HIT International Trading AG , at the same time the headquarters of this company were relocated to Berlin. At the same time, joint ventures with established brands such as Landré (1996), Diplomat (1997), Fiege eCom (2000) and Mercoline (2000) were created.
Sales figures:
- 1995: 953.0 million euros
- 1998: 629.9 million euros
- 2000: 489.8 million euros
- 2003: 347.0 million euros
2001-2007
The development forced Herlitz to make drastic cuts at the beginning of the 21st century. Since the summer of 2001, Herlitz has belonged to a majority bank consortium in which, among others, Deutsche Bank , HypoVereinsbank and Bankgesellschaft Berlin were represented.
In April 2002, Herlitz AG, Herlitz PBS AG, Diplomat Schreibgeräte GmbH and Susy Card GmbH & Co. KG filed for insolvency. The insolvency administrator, lawyer Peter Leonhardt, succeeded in avoiding the final breakup of the company in the insolvency proceedings . An attempt was made to undertake a strategic realignment. Herlitz was the first listed company in Germany to successfully conduct insolvency proceedings under the new insolvency law in record time (four months).
Under the chairman of the board, Christian R. Supthut, unprofitable foreign companies were closed in France and Portugal, as were half of the thirteen production sites. The number of employees was reduced from 5000 (1993) to 2900 (2004). The turnover could be consolidated, in the anniversary year 2004 it was again 335 million euros, the profit over one million euros.
With effect from October 4, 2005, Stationery Products S.à.rl (Stationery Products), based in Luxembourg, took over around 64.7% of the share capital of Herlitz AG from the creditor banks. Stationery Products belongs indirectly to Advent International Corp. (Advent), based in Boston , USA, is an international private equity company. According to stern.de of April 28, 2005, Advent is one of the so-called locusts . The EU Commission approved the purchase. Another 15% of the shares are held by the Herlitz family, the rest is free float.
In 2005, the operating result - despite a further decline in sales (to 318 million euros) in an intensifying price competition in the market - increased compared to the previous year and net liabilities were reduced.
The decline in sales could not be slowed in 2006, the revenues fell by 2.9% to 309 million euros, but the earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose by 5.2 million to 3.9 million euros. In the previous year, the company had to cope with a loss of 1.3 million euros.
Herlitz planned to enter the Russian market in 2007. Herlitz wants to expand its particularly strong position in Eastern Europe. The group, which now has a total of 2350 employees, was able to improve sales in Eastern Europe by 15 percent. With 65 million euros in revenue, Herlitz's market there had left Western Europe behind for the first time. It was mainly thanks to Eastern Europe that Herlitz was able to increase its sales slightly in 2007 for the first time in twelve years.
2008-2015
Stationery Products failed to achieve a turnaround . The downward trend continues unabated, so that in October 2008 the envelope production of Herlitz PBS AG had to be sold to the Mayer-Kuvert group of companies in Heilbronn. In January 2009, the Herlitz subsidiary Pro-office sro, based in Most-Cepirohy (Czech Republic), was sold to the Wiener Ring-Holding. The pbs-report saw this as the beginning of the end of the formerly successful Herlitz philosophy "Everything from one source".
In November 2009 it was announced that Herlitz will be taken over by Pelikan International. In March 2010 the Federal Cartel Office approved the takeover of the office supplies manufacturer Herlitz, including the logistics center, by the writing instrument manufacturer Pelikan International Corporation Berhad (PICB) based in Puchong, Selangor in Malaysia .
The sell-off continued when, in the spring of 2012, the Swiss office supplies manufacturer Biella-Neher Holding von Herlitz established its subsidiaries Falken Office Products in Peitz , DELMET Prod srl in Buftea (Romania) and Herlitz UK Ltd. in Hyde, Greater Manchester (Great Britain).
At the end of 2012, the board of directors Hooi Keat Loo in Malaysia announced that Herlitz will close its headquarters in Berlin by the end of 2013 and move to Falkensee .
According to alarming figures for 2012, at the beginning of November 2013, under the chairman of the supervisory board Tan Sri Abi Musa Asa'ari bin Mohamed Nor , the remaining production facilities for paper, office and stationery were sold to Pelikan for a purchase price of 13 million euros after an original The proposed joint venture was rejected by the Pelikan owners due to major economic and tax risks. The profitable logistics and service division is to remain the only one with Herlitz. The sale was completed on March 1, 2014.
The Malaysian main shareholders of Herlitz parted ways with the executive board member Thomas Radke at the end of 2013, as he had not found any contact with the group's major customers. Since, according to the Herlitz statutes, the board of directors must consist of at least two people, the lawyer Frauke Wandrey, who had previously been managing director of the Pelikan production company in Vöhrum, took over.
Merger of Herlitz AG with Herlitz PBS AG
In order to further simplify the corporate structure, Herlitz PBS AG paper, office and stationery as the transferring company was merged with Herlitz Aktiengesellschaft as the acquiring company. As a result, Herlitz PBS AG transferred its assets as a whole with all rights and obligations under dissolution without liquidation with effect from December 31, 2013 (merger date) to Herlitz AG by way of the merger through inclusion. The merger was entered in the commercial register on March 31, 2014.
Company name from April 2015
From April 30, 2015, Herlitz will operate as Pelikan AG.
Societal engagement
On the initiative of Herlitz, the non-profit association BildungsCent e. V. founded, he campaigns nationwide for the sustainable promotion of the teaching and learning culture in Germany.
Awards
Herlitz was awarded the German Logistics Prize in 1990 as part of the German Logistics Congress, thereby recognizing the longstanding services of board member Klaus Albig. The holistic environmental initiatives and improvements in the company were awarded several national environmental prizes in the early and mid-1990s; Klaus Herlitz , the board member responsible for marketing and environmental issues, and Horst Schubert, the head of the department , were explicitly given by the then Berlin Senator for the Environment, Volker Hassemer , and by of the Federal Environment Minister Angela Merkel . In 1999 the Gartner Group and Computerwoche awarded the “IT User Prize” for innovative IT solutions to the board member Andreas Resch . As early as 1992 and 1994, marketing was given the “German Standards” brand award. Due to the activities of the board member Dietrich Groth, Herlitz received the “Brand of the Century” brand seal in 2007.
Under the marketing management of Oliver Windbrake, Herlitz received the Golden Ramses 2010 for the best radio spot in the Best Audio Idea category and for the "Monster Talent Campaign" the entry in the 2010 Advertising Yearbook with the award of 1st place / industry winner in the area Social media activities / digital media B2C.
In February 2011, Federal Family Minister Kristina Schröder presented the European Employee Volunteering Award Germany in the Innovation category to Windbrake for Herlitz's commitment to “Partners in Leadership”.
Others
According to the company, 93 percent of all German households knew the name Herlitz in 2005 .
Business figures
| Fiscal year | Sales in € million |
Net income / net loss for the year in € million |
Employee Germany |
Employees worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 744.6 | + 21.5 | 5027 | |
| 1995 | 953.2 | - 66.5 | 4855 | |
| 1996 | 891.9 | - 2.8 | 5215 | |
| 2004 | 337.5 | + 4.1 | 1972 | 2737 |
| 2005 | 317.6 | - 4.6 | 1821 | 2686 |
| 2006 | 308.5 | + 0.6 | 1636 | 2439 |
| 2007 | 310.5 | - 3.6 | 1523 | 2349 |
| 2008 | 301.9 | - 1.1 | 1467 | 2289 |
| 2009 | 259.3 | - 1.3 | 1365 | 1898 |
| 2010 | 233.8 | - 4.0 | 1238 | 1702 |
| 2011 | 228.9 | - 9.8 | 1219 | 1663 |
| 2012 | 197.1 | - 4.8 | 963 | 1335 |
| 2013 | 95.5 | - 7.5 | 578 | 904 |
| 2014 | 94.1 | - 2.1 | 557 | 871 |
(Sources: annual reports for the respective years)
CEO
| Surname | from | to |
|---|---|---|
| Hooi Keat Loo, Frauke Wandrey, Claudio Esteban Seleguan and Torsten Jahn (none of them named chairman of the board) | March 30, 2015 | April 30, 2015 |
| Hooi Keat Loo, Frauke Wandrey and Claudio Esteban Seleguan (none of them named chairman of the board) | 1st of January 2014 | March 30, 2015 |
| Hooi Keat Loo and Frauke Wandrey (both without mentioning chairman of the board) | 1st of January 2014 | 15th December 2014 |
| Hooi Keat Loo and Thomas Radke (both chairman of the board without mentioning) | June 1, 2012 | December 31 2013 |
| Thomas Huebner | July 1, 2011 | May 31, 2012 |
| Jan von Schuckmann | June 1, 2007 | July 1, 2011 |
| Johan (Jan) van Riet | January 1, 2006 | May 31, 2007 |
| Christian R. Supthut | March 1, 2002 | December 31, 2005 |
| Christian R. Supthut and Norbert Strecker | January 1, 2002 | February 28, 2002 |
| Werner Eisenhardt | January 1, 2000 | December 31, 2001 |
| Karel Marinus de Vries (Board Spokesman) | July 16, 1997 | December 31, 1999 |
| Gérald Jaslowitzer (Board Spokesman) | July 18, 1996 | July 16, 1997 |
| Peter Herlitz | May 26, 1992 | July 18, 1996 |
| Heinz Herlitz | January 1, 1992 | May 25, 1992 |
| Peter Herlitz and Heinz Herlitz (both board spokesmen) | 17th August 1988 | December 31, 1991 |
| Günter Herlitz | 1st September 1972 | August 16, 1988 |
Chairman of the Supervisory Board
| Surname | from | to |
|---|---|---|
| Tan Sri Abi Musa Asa'ari bin Mohamed Nor | July 11th 2013 | April 30, 2015 |
| Hooi Keat Loo | June 20, 2012 | July 11th 2013 |
| Georg C. Domizlaff | June 21, 2006 | June 20, 2012 |
| Harald J. Schröder | June 18, 2003 | June 21, 2006 |
| Hans-Peter Friedrichsen | October 22, 1997 | June 18, 2003 |
| Peter Herlitz | July 18, 1996 | October 22, 1997 |
| Günter Herlitz | 17th August 1988 | July 18, 1996 |
| Martin Scholz | 1st September 1972 | August 16, 1988 |
Web links
- Herlitz website
- Subsidiary eCom Logistik GmbH
- Subsidiary Mercoline GmbH
- Subsidiary POS Servicegesellschaft mbH
Individual evidence
- ^ Der Tagesspiegel , October 27, 1960
- ^ Doing business with Ernie and Bert. In: Die Zeit , January 18, 1974 No. 4 (Online pp. 2/3)
- ↑ Herlitz grows and grows and grows. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 8, 1971
- ↑ Strong rush for Herlitz shares. In: Börsenzeitung , September 20, 1977
- ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , September 23, 1977
- ↑ Berliner Herlitz AG with high growth rates. In: Berliner Zeitung , March 12, 1994
- ↑ Herlitz AG: Report on the 1995 financial year, p. 15 ff.
- ↑ a b Manager Magazin , No. 3/1995, pp. 169–170
- ↑ Berliner Morgenpost , July 16, 1997: Russian Experiences - About the Problems of German Investors
- ↑ a b c Manager Magazin , November 1998, pp. 41-46
- ↑ Peter Herlitz leaves In: Der Tagesspiegel , October 23, 1997
- ↑ RSE Projektmanagement AG takes over Herlitz Falkenhöh. on welt.de , 1999
- ^ The Herlitz debacle at: FAZ-Net , April 3, 2002
- ↑ Herlitz Group Chronicle. ( Memento of the original from August 30, 2012 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. Bankruptcy in 2002
- ↑ a b herlitz.de: Herlitz PBS AG - Innovative, Quality- Oriented and Beneficial ( Memento of the original dated September 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The names of the locusts. stern.de, April 28, 2005
- ↑ pbs report , magazine for office & ambience
- ↑ Pelikan grabs Herlitz. ( 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. heute.de, November 6, 2009
- ↑ Biella Neher takes over Falken Office. cms-hs.com, April 2, 2012
- ↑ Moritz Honert: Traditional company Herlitz leaves Berlin. In: Der Tagesspiegel . December 1, 2012, accessed November 20, 2013 .
- ↑ Herlitz annual sales decline by double digits. ( 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. bossticker, May 3, 2013
- ↑ Annual Report 2013
- ↑ Maris Hubschmid: Day of the decision at Herlitz. In: Der Tagesspiegel . November 4, 2013, accessed November 20, 2013 .
- ↑ Maris Hubschmid: Herlitz sells main business areas to Pelikan. In: Der Tagesspiegel . November 6, 2013, accessed November 20, 2013 .
- ↑ Radke leaves Herlitz. ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2013 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. opi.net
- ↑ Frauke Wandrey becomes a member of the board. boss-magazin.de
- ↑ Ad-hoc announcement from Herlitz AG ( Memento of the original from February 25, 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.
- ↑ pbs report, November 21, 2013
- ↑ Ad-hoc announcement from Herlitz AG
- ↑ Angela Merkel: "The price of survival", 1997 Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt GmbH, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-421-05113-5 .
- ↑ [1] Original annual reports ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2011 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. from the years 2004–2012 of Herlitz AG
