KBC Fashion

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KBC Fashion GmbH & Co. KG
legal form GmbH & Co. KG
founding April 6, 1752
Seat Loerrach , Germany
management Henri Rowienski, Valentina Franceschini
Number of employees 385
sales EUR 54.14 million
Branch Textile industry
Website www.kbc.de
As of December 31, 2017

The KBC Fashion GmbH & Co. KG , in short: KBC (formerly . KBC Manufaktur Koechlin, Baumgartner & Cie GmbH ) is a German textile company with headquarters in Loerrach . It belonged to the Daun Group until 2017 .

history

Foundation and expansion

It was founded on April 6, 1752 by Philipp Jakob Oberkampf (1714–1781), the father of Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf , as an indienne factory in Loerrach. After only a year, Oberkampf gave up because he had run out of capital.

The company was taken over in 1753 by Johann Friedrich Küpfer from Bern , with the approval of Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden-Durlach. In his time the factory already had between 200 and 400 employees. After his death on February 20, 1766, his son Nikolaus Jakob Küpfer and his brother-in-law Gmelin took over the management. After initial success, Küpfer fell into disrepute among his financiers in Basel , the Merian brothers , because he used the profits of his textile company to carry out alchemical experiments in his own laboratory to produce gold .

During the Napoleonic era, the factory went bankrupt because of the continental blockade. When the foreclosure auction failed in 1804, it went to the margravial government and production stood still for four years. In 1808 the government sold the work to the Merian brothers from nearby Basel and to the Peter and Daniel Koechlin brothers from Mulhouse . In the following years Peter Koechlin founded further spinning and weaving mills in the surrounding area, for example in Steinen , Schönau and Zell . This was the nucleus of the later Zell-Schönau AG. The steam engine drive was soon introduced and switched from manual to roller printing. In 1830 around 5000 people worked in the Koechlin factories in southern Baden and Alsace. In the same year Camille Koechlin and his son Horace joined the group. Léon Baumgartner (1818–1872) joined the Koechlin company in 1843 and became its partner in 1849.

Characteristic chimney of KBC in Loerrach

KBC received a gold medal for its products at the Paris World Exhibition in 1864. The company did not remain idle in the social field either. Hundreds of company apartments were built, a company health insurance fund was established, a company doctor was employed and a company kindergarten was installed.

In 1864 the GmbH was converted into a stock corporation. In 1903 employee participation in company profits was introduced.

The company's international orientation has lasted for over 250 years and has resulted in numerous acquisitions and collaborations around the world. In 1967 sales exceeded 100 million marks for the first time; at the peak in 1989/1990, consolidated sales of DM 1.3 billion were achieved. However, KBC, the largest company in Lörrach, also fell into a crisis in the 1990s. Dependence on the Parisian DMC group (Dollfus, Mieg & Cie.), To which KBC has belonged since the 1970s, made matters worse. There were several changes in the management board. In 1994 the company still had 4,000 employees and a turnover of 1.3 billion DM. In 1997 the AG was converted back into a GmbH, investments and company apartments were sold, and the workforce was reduced to 600. Despite this, the company posted a loss of DM 95 million in 1999.

In 1976, the Stehli company, founded in Erzingen in 1903, was taken over and renamed Synteen Mesh Technology.

Decline

Belonging to the Daun Group , which KBC declared insolvent in 2000 and renovated and modernized in the following years with investments in the double-digit millions, initially contributed to the recovery, as did the sale of a third of the company premises to the city of Lörrach, where the Innocel Economic Development Agency has established new companies and intends to continue to do so.

The focus was on printing high-quality women's outerwear using rotary screen printing and increasingly using inkjet printing .

A special field of KBC is the equipment of canvas fabric for the manufacturer Contender Sailcloth . which is represented in Germany by Robert Lindemann KG in Hamburg.

After it became known in September 2016 that Daun wanted to part with KBC, the sale to the Italian financial investor Wise SGR was realized in March 2017. Wise SGR has assigned KBC to the newly founded holding company Imprima Spa , while Imprima also bought the Italian textile printer Guarisco Class Srl .

In March 2018 it was announced that the Daun Group had sold KBC's properties with around 80,000 square meters to Swiss investors (Volare Group, formerly Oel-Pool AG ). The Wise SGR did not take over this, but only signed a lease until October 2019 for their use. At the same time, plans were announced that Imprima would relocate production to Italy by the end of 2018. In April 2018, it was announced at a works meeting that 260 of the remaining 380 jobs would be cut and that the rotary printing would be relocated to Como . In May 2018, news was circulating about a takeover offer from a group of investors that KBC wanted to continue to run at the Loerrach site with 200 employees. At the end of June the managing director of KBC resigned. The negotiations on a social plan were now continued by representatives of the Italian group management and their offer triggered outrage among the employees and their works council, as well as IG Metall . An agreement on the social plan was only reached at the end of September 2018. In Lörrach, Imprima wants to continue a sales and creativity department. “KBC is a reference in the textile industry.” The strong brand name and the creativity of highly qualified employees are what continue to interest Imprima. According to the policy formulated by the parent company, Wise SGR, the sale of Imprima is to be expected in the next few years, as the private equity company will only hold investments for 3-5 years.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2017 in the electronic Federal Gazette
  2. ↑ a b c d University of Hohenheim Economic Archive Baden-Württemberg Köchlin, Baumgartner & Cie Holdings: Y 270
  3. ↑ insideB: ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: only smaller, not squared ) Page 1, PDF@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.inside-b.de
  4. ↑ Homepage of Contender BV, Mijdrecht (NL)
  5. ↑ Homepage of Lindemann KG with the logos of the represented companies.
  6. ↑ Willi Adam: Sale of KBC Fashion completed. Part of an Italian holding company. In: Badische Zeitung of March 24, 2017; accessed on March 24, 2017.
  7. ↑ Entry Imprima Spa on bloomberg.com; accessed on April 1, 2018.
  8. ↑ Guido Neidinger, Bernhard Konrad: KBC premises are sold. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt from March 16, 2018; accessed on October 21, 2018.
  9. ↑ Kristoff Meller: "We want to build something here." In: Die Oberbadische of May 8, 2019; accessed on October 28, 2019
  10. ↑ Guido Neidinger, Bernhard Konrad: KBC is cutting jobs. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt from April 16, 2018; accessed on October 21, 2018.
  11. ↑ Guido Neidinger: Serious offer for KBC. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt from May 7, 2018; accessed on October 21, 2018.
  12. ↑ Bernhard Konrad: Rowienski leaves KBC. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt from June 26, 2018; accessed on October 21, 2018.
  13. ↑ Henri Robert Rowienski was deleted from the Freiburg Commercial Register on September 11, 2018 and Gianluca Boni was entered instead.
  14. ↑ Guido Neidinger: “Outrageous offer” for KBC employees. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt from July 11, 2018; accessed on October 21, 2018.
  15. ↑ ndg: Negotiations over KBC a tragedy. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt from August 3, 2018; accessed on October 21, 2018.
  16. ↑ Bernhard Konrad: The graduation is done. In: Oberbadisches Volksblatt from September 28, 2018; accessed on October 21, 2018.
  17. ↑ Willi Adam: "KBC can work profitably again". Interview by Willi Adam with the President of Imprima Spa, Valentina Franceschini. In: Badische Zeitung from October 20, 2018.
  18. ↑ Typology of Operations on the Wise SGR homepage; accessed on October 21, 2018.

Coordinates: 47 ° 36 ′ 26.4 "  N , 7 ° 39 ′ 23.4"  E