Hans Imhoff (entrepreneur)

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Grave of the Imhoff family in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne, August 2014

Hans Imhoff (* 12. March 1922 in Cologne , † 21st December 2007 ) was a German Chocolate - producer . He founded the Imhoff Chocolate Museum named after him in Cologne.

Childhood and post-war years

Hans Imhoff was the son of Fritz Imhoff, a master locksmith for steel structures and church windows, and Charlotte Imhoff (née Gallé). After attending the three-year commercial school, he began a commercial apprenticeship in Cologne. He then reported as a volunteer with the Navy in a war reporting unit . Due to an eye problem, he was retired from service as a marine in 1943 and returned to Cologne. In the same year he married his first wife Irmgard Lenz, with whom he had two children. He first worked in a car repair shop and switched to the Cologne vehicle manufacturer Ford in 1944 . In October 1945 Imhoff received approval from the occupying powers to set up a grocery wholesaler in Alf (Mosel) , which shortly after became the largest grocery supplier in the region. In June 1948 he founded a chocolate and praline factory in Bullay with a chocolate machine bought on the black market and became the first German post-war millionaire. The company grew steadily, in 1958 Imhoff already employed 400 people.

He returned to Cologne in 1964 to found the sweets chain "Punkt und Pünktchen", which he then merged with the "Susi confectionery specialty stores". After the price-fixing for chocolate bars was no longer fixed in August 1964, he concluded a license agreement with the chocolate manufacturer Chocolat Tobler for the production of an annual volume of 3,000 t of chocolate, and one year later achieved sales of 30 million marks. This license agreement became the core business of his company for many years.

Expansion through Stollwerck

Up to now Imhoff had only manufactured no-name products . He took over the branded product “ Scho-Ka-Kola ” for the first time in 1969 with the Hildebrand, cocoa and chocolate factory in Berlin - Germany's oldest chocolate factory . In January 1972 he took over Stollwerck AG from Cologne , which at that time was in a corporate crisis. At that time, Stollwerck posted a turnover of 100 million DM and a loss of 10 million DM. Imhoff acquired 46.5% of the Stollwerck shares from Deutsche Bank AG . At a dramatic general meeting on December 21, 1972, he was presented as a renovator. In the years that followed, he thoroughly restructured the company through a clear branding policy and a tight range (from over 1,200 items was cut to 190) to become one of the leading European chocolate groups.

In 1974 Imhoff sold the 57,356 m² Stollwerck premises and the administrative building in Cologne's Severinsviertel, which was in need of renovation, to the Cologne-based finance broker and real estate agent Dr. Detlev Renatus Rüger (* 1933) for 25 million DM, although the value was estimated in an expert report at only 5.5 million marks. In addition, the move to Westhoven was funded by the city of Cologne 10 million marks. In return, in addition to the proceeds, he received 36% of the Stollwerck shares from Rüger (equivalent to 23.5 million DM), a total of 48.5 million DM. Hans Imhoff thus held 82.5% of Stollwerck AG. After the city declared the site a redevelopment area on October 3, 1974, it acquired it from Rüger on July 4, 1978 for 40 million marks. After laying the foundation stone on April 18, 1975, the company moved to its new location in Cologne-Westhoven in December 1975. The depreciation company WITAG , which belongs to Rüger, financed the construction costs there with investor capital . From May 20, 1980, the abandoned old Stollwerck site was occupied to prevent the impending demolition. But from July 1987 the machine hall and anno room were demolished and the anno bar was rebuilt.

Every two years Imhoff Industrie Holding AG took over traditional and well-known chocolate manufacturers such as Eszet (1975), Waldbaur (1977) or Sprengel (1979). In January 1998, the Sarotti brand from Nestlé Deutschland AG was added, and Gubor followed in March 1999. After reunification , Imhoff became involved in East Germany. In January 1991 he took over the Thuringian chocolate and confectionery manufacturer "VEB Kombinat Süßwaren" in Saalfeld / Saale and invested here for 240 million DM. Imhoff no longer limited himself to chocolate production, but diversified into other industries. Together with Larosé (March 1977) he founded a leasing company for work clothing, hotel and hospital linen and acquired the former mining company Concordia AG (1977).

He ran his company patriarchally like a family business . Imhoff turned the general meetings of Stollwerck AG with the minority shareholders into amusing events with generous hospitality and natural dividends in the form of chocolate packages. In 1988, in his book Cocoa - The True Gold of the Aztecs, he drew attention to what he considered to be the harmful dualism between progressive and backward economic systems.

When the Stollwerck headquarters moved to Cologne-Westhoven in December 1975, Imhoff noticed the extensive pool of exhibits that were suitable for a museum. He decided to build the first chocolate museum , which he opened on October 31, 1993 under the name Imhoff-Stollwerck-Schokoladenmuseum in Cologne. It developed into a crowd puller for Cologne.

Sale of Stollwerck

Since he was unable to find a successor within the family at Stollwerck AG, in April 2002 he sold his majority stake in Stollwerck AG, which has since grown to 96% (2001: 2,500 employees, € 750 million in sales and € 16.3 million Profit, market share 13.5%, for chocolate bars even 24.2%) for 175 million DM to the Swiss chocolate company Barry Callebaut AG. The remaining free shareholders (4%) were compensated in a squeeze-out . Production in Porz-Westhoven continued until March 2005, production there was relocated to the Stollwerck subsidiary Van Houten GmbH & Co. KG in Norderstedt . In October 2011, Callebaut sold the three German Stollwerck factories to the Belgian Baronie Group .

Hans Imhoff withdrew into private life; he died on December 21, 2007 after a long illness and was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne . Until his death he was married to Gerburg Klara Imhoff (née Schmidt) and had four children.

Honors (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DIED: Hans Imhoff . In: Der Spiegel . No. 1 , 2008 ( online - December 31, 2007 ).
  2. ↑ was sold to Hussel in November 2006
  3. ↑ a b Bernhard Wulff, Der Sarotti-Mohr: The moving story of an advertising figure , 2004, p. 147f.
  4. ^ The 100 richest Germans: Hans Imhoff , Spiegel online from February 16, 2001.
  5. ↑ Peter Fuchs (Ed.), Chronicle of the History of the City of Cologne , Volume 2, 1991, p. 313.
  6. ^ Money from sweet tooth , Zeit online from April 25, 1975.
  7. ↑ Wirtemberg, The Chocolate Side
  8. ↑ From confectionery to global company , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, March 30, 2005.
  9. ↑ Stollwerck AG on Wall Street online from April 10, 2002.
  10. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 1/2008 , accessed on December 24, 2011.
  11. ↑ Kölner Stadt Anzeiger ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 24, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ksta.de
  12. ^ Abendblatt , accessed on December 24, 2011.
  13. ↑ Kölner Stadt Anzeiger ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 24, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ksta.de
  14. ↑ Central name archive. (PDF; 287 kb) In: Official Gazette of the City of Cologne. March 13, 2019, pp. 116/117 , accessed March 15, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Imhoff, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chocolate manufacturer
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 2007
Place of death Cologne