Hess nature
| Hess Natur-Textilien GmbH
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1976 |
| Seat | Butzbach , Germany |
| management | Andrea Ebinger |
| Number of employees | 370 |
| sales | 68 million euros (financial year 2014/15) |
| Branch | Natural textiles |
| Website | www.hessnatur.com |
Hess Natur (spelling: hessnatur) is a German natural textiles mail order company based in Butzbach in the Wetterau district in Hesse . The range of goods is aimed at nature-conscious or special customers such as allergy sufferers . The entire range comes from fair trade .
The company is a member of the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles .
history
The company was founded in 1976 by Heinz Hess and Dorothea Hess under the name "dorothea hess - dispatch of natural goods" in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe . The joint management ran until 1982.
Initially, the range was shipped from the owner's house, a short time later a small shop was added in Bad Homburg, and in 1985 the small company was renamed Hess Natur-Textilien . The expanding company was finally relocated to a larger building in Bad Homburg in 1986, and the retail and mail order business was operated from there.
In 1992 the mail order business moved into a new building in Butzbach , with the stationary sales remaining in Bad Homburg until 2006. There is a remaining stock shop in downtown Butzbach. A new shop was opened in Butzbach in 2006 next to the company headquarters, others were opened in Hamburg in 2007 and in Munich in 2008. In the 2000s, hessnatur further developed its collection style, including a. by working with international designers such as Miguel Adrover , Eviana Hartman or Clodagh .
In 2001 Neckermann took over the company through a majority equity stake. From the takeover to autumn 2008, the company was led by two managing directors who were appointed by the Karstadt / Quelle group, which had received Hess through its stake in Neckermann. From October 2008 to August 2012 Wolf Lüdge was the sole managing director. Maximilian Lang has been hessnatur's managing director since January 1, 2012, and Marc Sommer has been the company's CEO since October 1, 2012. In 2008, hessnatur had around 320 employees, 210 of them in dispatch in Butzbach. The annual turnover in 2009 was around EUR 58 million, and in 2010 it was EUR 60 million. The parent company Primondo , to which Hess Natur had been assigned, was also affected by the insolvency of Karstadt / Quelle and Arcandor .
The end of 2010 it was announced that the US private equity -Gesellschaft Carlyle Group wants to take over Hess Natur. At the end of 2010, the Triaz Group, which includes, for example, the Freiburger Waschbär Umweltversand , also expressed interest in Hess Natur.
A group of employees, customers and people from the organizations Attac , Christian Initiative Romero and Campaign for Clean Clothes founded the hnGeno cooperative on March 17, 2011 with the aim of buying Hess Natur. This is to prevent the sale to Carlyle. In May 2011, Carlyle withdrew from a bid.
After several months of speculation about submitted and accepted sales offers, the bidding process was suspended for an indefinite period in June 2011; the owners should continue to run the company for the coming months. However, a purchase agreement between Primondo and the Swiss investor Capvis had already been signed on May 31, 2012 . This reserved the approval of the antitrust authorities , which was granted at the end of June. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Capvis paid the equivalent of around 48 million francs for Hess Natur. The works council filed a lawsuit against the management because of what it saw as the opaque sales negotiations. The Giessen Labor Court closed the proceedings on June 27, 2012.
The hessnatur Advisory Board was reconstituted in autumn 2012; The chairman of the committee is the entrepreneur Götz Werner , founder of the drugstore chain dm . In the same year, a hessnatur customer council was designed. On June 1, 2013, the hessnatur customer councils elected twelve delegates for the spokesperson's committee at the kick-off meeting in Butzbach, which is supposed to be in close contact with the hessnatur management.
engagement
With regard to its corporate responsibility and sustainability, hessnatur is involved in various projects. So z. B. Since 2002, a project with lepers, New SADLE, has been funded in Nepal; since 2005, hessnatur has been involved with the Swiss development aid organization Helvetas in the cultivation of organic and Fairtrade cotton in Burkina Faso, as well as with local social projects such as support a school kitchen. Hess Natur supports down production in Germany and guarantees that its down items are guaranteed not to be "live plucking". The live plucking of goose down is harshly criticized by animal rights activists.
Awards
In 2008, hessnatur received the “Positive Award” from the Public Eye on Davos for its commitment to fair trade . In December 2008 the company was honored with the German Sustainability Award in the purchasing category.
In 2010, Stiftung Warentest checked 20 T-shirt suppliers for their social and environmental commitment. The commitment to the environment and employees as well as company policy, consumer information and transparency were examined more closely. Of the 20 providers tested, only Hess Natur was strongly committed. In 2013, hessnatur received the gold medal in the category “Sustainability Communication in Retail” for the third time from the consumer initiative ev (Federal Association). Hess Natur was the only company in the textile industry to receive an award.
Web links
- Cooperative for the continuation of Hess Natur
- The bound boss : Portrait of the managing director Wolf Lüdge In: brand eins , 5/2012
Individual evidence
- ↑ Social standards part 1 at hessnatur (hessnatur.com, 2013)
- ^ Thorsten Winter: Textile alliance divides domestic fashion retailers . faz.net , October 16, 2014, accessed December 9, 2015.
- ↑ Jens Heisterkamp: Neckermann has a majority stake in Hess-Natur . Interview with Heinz Hess about the takeover, info3.de, October 1, 2000. ( Memento from October 16, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Neckermann on the stock exchange - Karstadt smashes mail order business (handelsblatt.com, 2006)
- ↑ Sustainable upwards with eco-fashion (FAZ October 21, 2010)
- ↑ Carlyle Group: prospective buyer worries customers of Hess-Natur (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2010)
- ^ Frank-Thomas Wenzel: Freiburg Triaz Group wants to protect eco-mailers from financial investors: Weißer Ritter für Hessnatur , Berliner Zeitung, December 18, 2010, accessed on April 19, 2012
- ↑ Cooperative against Financial Investor ( Memento from April 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) in: Allgemeine Zeitung from March 26, 2011.
- ↑ Carlyle is no longer interested in Hess Natur in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of May 13, 2011. Retrieved on March 4, 2015
- ↑ dreigliederung.de: Customers and workers fight for hessnatur - chance for a solidarity economic model? , January 2012, accessed April 19, 2012
- ↑ Hessnatur: "Capvis serious and financially strong investor" , Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung, June 14, 2012, accessed on July 9, 2012
- ↑ Marcel Speiser: Hess Natur: Resistance to Swiss "grasshopper". In: Handelszeitung. June 7, 2012, Retrieved July 9, 2012 .
- ↑ Labor court closes the proceedings in the Hessnatur case. In: Welt online. June 27, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2012 .
- ↑ Down from the Münsterland. In: hessnatur company website. Retrieved November 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Committed companies are rare . test.de , July 29, 2010, accessed December 9, 2015.
- ↑ 2013 consumer award in gold for hessnatur - Free press releases - The way to successful marketing with our press distribution list! Retrieved November 21, 2019 .