Klöckner & Co

Klöckner & Co SE
legal form	Societas Europaea
ISIN	DE000KC01000
founding	1906
Seat	Duisburg , Germany
management	Gisbert Rühl ( CEO ) Oliver Falk George John Ganem III
Number of employees	8,579
sales	6.79 billion euros (2018)
Branch	Steel and metal dealers
Website	www.kloeckner.com
As of December 31, 2018

Klöckner & Co SE (often abbreviated as KlöCo or KCO ), based in Duisburg, is a listed, producer-independent steel and metal trader. Klöckner's core business is the sale of steel and non-ferrous metals . With its distribution network, the group serves around 100,000 customers at around 160 locations in 13 countries.

Group structure

Klöckner & Co operates in 13 countries. The business activities are controlled by the management board and the central departments of the Duisburger Holding and carried out by the national companies. This includes:

• Buysmetal NV (Belgium)
• Kloeckner Metals Brasil SA (Brazil)
• Klöckner & Co Deutschland GmbH (Germany)
• Becker Stahl-Service GmbH (Germany)
• kloeckner.i GmbH (Germany)
• kloeckner.v GmbH (Germany)
• Klöckner Metals Europe GmbH (Germany)
• Klöckner Shared Services GmbH (Germany)
• Kloeckner Metals France (France)
• Kloeckner Metals UK (Great Britain)
• Kloeckner Metals Corporation (Mexico)
• Kloeckner Metals ODS Nederland (Netherlands)
• Kloeckner Metals Austria (Austria)
• ODS Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia)
• Debrunner Koenig Holding AG (Switzerland)
• Bewetec AG (Switzerland)
• ODS Asia Pacific (Singapore)
• Kloeckner Metals Corporation (USA)
• ODS Middle East (United Arab Emirates)

Business model

The Group's value chain extends from purchasing to warehousing, services, trading and distribution. Consulting services relating to storage, processing and logistics are also offered. The international distribution group operates independently of production.

Customers are both small and medium-sized companies as well as large international corporations. They come primarily from the construction industry as well as from mechanical and plant engineering . The group also supplies primary products for the automotive , shipbuilding and consumer goods industries .

Klöckner & Co is planning to digitize its supply and service chain end-to-end and to push ahead with the introduction of an independent, open industrial platform that will become the leading vertical platform for the steel and metal industry.

market and competition

The main competitors of Klöckner & Co on the North American market are Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (USA), Ryerson Inc. (USA) and Russel Metals Inc. (Canada), on the European market the BE Group (Sweden) and the distribution divisions of steel producers Salzgitter AG (Germany), Tata Steel (UK), ArcelorMittal (Netherlands) and ThyssenKrupp (Germany).

Products and services

The product range is divided into the areas of long products (steel girders for the construction industry), flat products (sheet metal for machine builders), hollow profiles (steel construction hollow profiles), stainless and quality steel (high-alloy round steels for mechanical engineering), aluminum (aluminum profile bars for plant construction) and special products such as plastics, Hardware and accessories. Klöckner & Co offers a total of more than 200,000 products.

In addition to raw materials and primary products, the group offers services such as processing with 3D laser technology, cutting and splitting steel strips, cutting to length, flame cutting and surface treatment.

history

The beginnings

On June 28, 1906, the businessman Peter Klöckner founded the trading company Klöckner & Co. in Duisburg. Born in Koblenz in 1863, Peter Klöckner had already been active in the iron and steel industry for 24 years at the time of its founding and had worked through company renovations and investments in the Industry profiled. With Klöckner & Co, a trading company was created that was supposed to take strategic account of the growing iron and steel industry. In addition to company takeovers, Klöckner focused on expansion right from the start. The first branches in Cologne and Düsseldorf were opened in 1906, the year it was founded.

Further expansion

In 1907 Klöckner opened further branches in Berlin and Magdeburg, in 1909 Hamburg and Dresden followed. In 1911, Mannheim also covered a location in the southwest and the connection to the Kneuttingen production site was established. The extensive trading and sales network grew within a few years to a size that made it impossible for Klöckner to run the company patriarchally in the classic sense. The branches were given the status of independent companies that worked with their managers on their own account. In addition to the pig iron trade and steel production, the range is also expanded to include ore trading and raw material processing.

New branches of the company

After the plants in Troisdorf and Düsseldorf were anchored in the group, the companies of the group covered the entire range of industrial production. The trading house served as an intermediary in the production chain, which as early as 1912 extended from the ore mine to the manufacture of wires and machines. In 1913, the company entered the scrap trade, which developed into a particularly lucrative branch of the iron and steel trade. In 2017, the company joined the 3D printer manufacturer BigRep, announcing its entry into 3D printing .

The First World War

A sharp turning point followed with the outbreak of the First World War . In particular, the drafting of many employees for military service became a problem. The plant in Kneuttingen, Lorraine, had to drastically reduce production during the war years because many Italians who had worked there returned to their home countries after the outbreak of war.

Growth in crisis

Klöckner & Co was able to hold its own in the economic crisis after the end of the First World War. An expansion of the fields of activity compensated for losses in the steel business, and sales rose. The scrap trade was successful and other businesses such as trading in pit wood, coal and chemicals made additional profits. In the 1920s and 1930s, the trading house established its first branches in Europe, South and North America and built up its own foreign department. The division of the group into Klöckner-Werke AG and Klöckner & Co also strengthened the independence of the trading division.

Peter Klöckner's economic success was overshadowed by a death in December 1936. Waldemar, Klöckner's only son and potential successor, died in a car accident. He was succeeded by another family member, Günther Henle , the husband of Peter Klöckner's stepdaughter.

In the grip of politics

After Peter Klöckner's death on October 5, 1940, Günther Henle took over the management of the corporate group. Since Klöckner was considered one of the strategically important companies for the German armaments industry, the Klöckner-Werke came under the control of the National Socialists in the course of the chaos of war . Henle, who was relieved of his position as managing director of the Klöckner Group by the Nazis in 1942, fled to Berlin for a short time, but soon returned and took over the management of Klöckner & Co. from then on. The trading company remained relative even during the Nazi regime independently. However, regular trade was hardly possible in times of war (see also war economics ).

New beginning and economic miracle

Logo of the Klöckner & Co group at that time

After the war, the Klöckner Group came under the supervision of the Allies, whose goal was the unbundling of the large company. In this difficult situation, a new start was made surprisingly quickly. Like the other Klöckner companies, the trading company benefited from the global demand for iron and steel that was soon to emerge. After the legal separation of Klöckner-Werke AG and Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG in the 1950s, Klöckner developed into a diversified trading company. The sale of steel in Germany brought high profits in times of the economic miracle. Subsidiaries abroad strengthened international business. Klöckner was also active in other sectors, from plastics to heating oil, from shipping to burner technology.

internationalization

After the end of the economic miracle , Klöckner reacted to the fundamental changes in the steel market with more service, a reorganization of the warehouse and more international trading activities. In addition to the core business of steel trading, the company expanded its other trading areas and opened up new business areas. Diversification and internationalization proved their worth in the economic ups and downs of the 1970s and 1980s. Then a failed crude oil futures deal plunged the company into an existential crisis in the late 1980s. The speculative losses destroyed the company's capital base. The "oil debacle" cost the company 600 million marks. C. Peter Henle , who was responsible for this business area, drew the conclusions and left the overall management.

In this situation, Klöckner was saved by Deutsche Bank , which provided 400 million marks to cover the losses, took over the company and converted it into a stock corporation. This means that Klöckner was no longer family-run after more than 80 years. In the course of the rescue measures, the traditional company became the property of VIAG . Under new management, Klöckner was active in areas such as steel, PC products, chemicals, textiles and mobile buildings in the 1990s and expanded its international presence in the steel sector.

Focus on the core business

In the spring of 1997, Klöckner announced the decision to concentrate on its core business, steel and metal trading, in future. In order to make this change visible on the outside as well, a new logo, the Klöckner & Co dog and the claim “multi metal distribution” were introduced.

While Klöckner continued to expand its stockholding steel trade in Europe, activities of the group that were no longer part of the core business were sold. In 1997, Klöckner spun off the textile division and transferred it for sale to a non-consolidated holding company. At the end of the year, the group sold the remaining stake in Thyssen Klöckner Recycling GmbH to the majority shareholder. At the beginning of 1998, Klöckner Chemiehandel GmbH was sold. Computer 2000 AG changed hands in the summer of 1998 and was sold to the US Tech Data Corporation. The involvement with Röder Zeltsysteme und Service AG was also ended in summer 1998. Almost at the same time, the company also gave up its remaining stake in Klöckner Industrie-Anlagen GmbH (INA) to the majority shareholder. The former conglomerate became a pure steel and metal distributor. In terms of sales, the business volume halved from 18.6 billion marks in 1997 to 9.5 billion marks in 1998. The number of employees fell from 14,655 to 10,752.

In the autumn of 1998, the then parent company of the company, VIAG , announced that it wanted to part with the Duisburg steel distributor in the medium term. In 2001 Klöckner & Co was sold to the Balli Group, a British materials dealer. At that time, Klöckner employed 10,000 people and had annual sales of € 4.8 billion. The two Iranian owners of the Balli Group had financed the € 1.1 billion takeover as follows: Hassan Alaghband and Vahid Alaghband confessed that before the takeover of the Klöckner Group's € 47.5 million to finance the Having withdrawn Klöckner accounts. Previously, there was talk of € 120 million that had flowed into Switzerland from KlöcknerKonten. The brothers were each sentenced to one and a half years probation and fines between € 1.75 million and € 2.25 million for infidelity or incitement to infidelity. In the process surrounding the financing method, the two owners complained that WestLB , knowing of Ballis’s financing problems, had refused a € 150 million loan in order to use the lien on the Klöckner shares at Ballis’s expense and to do a good deal itself.

Two years after the takeover, Balli sold 94.5% of the steel and metal trading company to WestLB and 5.1% to Hamburgische Landesbank . In the course of the change of ownership, there was also a change at the top of the group. The new CEO was Thomas Ludwig, who had been a member of the Klöckner Executive Board from 1991 to 1995. Under his aegis, the company's strategic expansion was resumed.

initial public offering

In 2005, Klöckner went to the US private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer (LGB), which finally went public in June 2006 and also sold the majority of the shares in October. The entire capital is currently in free float (as of August 2011).

The shares are admitted to trading on the regulated market on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with additional post-admission obligations ( Prime Standard ). On January 29, 2007, the Klöckner & Co share was included in the MDAX index of Deutsche Börse. Institutional investors now represent the largest group of shareholders. Overall, the identified institutional investors hold 50% of all shares. The majority of the institutional shareholders come from Germany and the USA. Private investors hold around 21% of the shares. (2016) The share has been listed in the SDAX index since March 21, 2016. Klöckner & Co is thus one of the 160 largest listed companies in Germany.

Expansive acquisition strategy

Since going public in 2006, Klöckner & Co has been pursuing an expansive acquisition strategy and has already taken over 24 companies. Klöckner & Co is now one of the 80 largest listed companies in Germany. In April 2007, Klöckner announced the purchase via the US subsidiary Namasco to the steel distribution company Primary Steel . With the new US subsidiary, Klöckner can significantly expand its activities on the American market, with sales there increasing by around 60 percent.

In April 2008 Ulrich Becker was appointed to the board. In addition to the operational activities of the group in Europe, Becker was responsible for the business of Klöckner Global Sourcing as well as the areas of logistics, process management and international product management. A short time later, in August 2008, the company was converted into a European company . From now on, the group operates as Klöckner & Co SE.

As a reaction to the financial crisis that spread from 2007 onwards, Klöckner introduced a program of immediate measures called "Wave 1" from October 2008. This included the temporary suspension of acquisitions, cost reductions and debt reductions, as well as securing group financing. In March 2009, another program of immediate measures ("Wave 2") was launched. In order to resume the acquisition strategy it has pursued since going public in 2006, Klöckner issued a convertible bond in June 2009 and carried out a capital increase shortly afterwards.

In November 2009, Gisbert Rühl took over as CEO of Klöckner & Co. from Thomas Ludwig. Ten days after Gisbert Rühl took office, Klöckner signed a preliminary agreement on the acquisition of the Becker Stahl-Service Group (BSS). After Klöckner & Co resumed the acquisition strategy that had been suspended for a short time due to the global financial and economic crisis with the takeover of Bläsi AG in January 2010, the Klöckner Management Board announced the acquisition of BSS on March 1, 2010.

In April 2011, Klöckner took over Macsteel Service Centers USA. In May 2011, Frefer, Brazil's third largest independent steel and metal distributor, was taken over. In June 2011, Klöckner issued 33,250,000 new shares and generated net proceeds of around € 516 million, which will be used to continue the “Klöckner & Co 2020” growth strategy. At the end of 2011, Kloeckner Metals (Changshu) Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Klöckner & Co, opened the first steel service center in China in Changshu near Shanghai and the provinces of Shandong , Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui. So far, Kloeckner Metals has primarily supplied the machine and plant manufacturers from Europe based in the Changshu area.

Against the background of falling steel demand in Europe and the uncertain economic outlook, the group launched a comprehensive restructuring program in autumn 2011, sold or closed 70 locations by the end of 2013 and cut around 2,200 jobs.

digitalization

As part of its long-term growth strategy, Klöckner & Co has set itself the goal of digitizing its entire supply chain. For this purpose, a separate Group Center of Competence for digitization was founded at the end of 2014 with kloeckner.i . Over 90 employees now work there in the areas of product innovation, software development, online marketing and business analytics. Digital tools such as contract portals, online shops or order overviews as well as a service platform are available online. In addition, a venture capital company was founded in Berlin, kloeckner.v , through which Klöckner & CO participates directly or indirectly in start-ups.

Awards

• Kununu "Top Company" and "Open Company"
• Women's career index: Since 2015, Klöckner & Co SE has been recognized as a top ten company among more than 160 participating companies.
• “ Fair Company ”: Klöckner & Co SE was awarded the seal of approval for fair and responsible handling of interns by the employers' initiative “Fair Company”.

Web links

• Homepage of Klöckner & Co SE
• Klöckner & Co SE: Interim Report 2017 (PDF; 1.9 MB) Accessed October 27, 2017 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Board of Directors on kloeckner.com
2. ↑ ^{a b} Klöckner & Co SE: Annual Report 2018. Accessed on March 14, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Group. Retrieved March 14, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Group structure - operating companies. In: kloeckner.com. Klöckner & Co, 2017, accessed on March 2, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Products and services on kloeckner.com
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Klöckner & Co SE: anniversary magazine. (PDF; 16.8 MB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 20, 2016 ; Retrieved June 20, 2016 . 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.  
7. ↑ Klöckner & Co invests in technology startup BigRep - BigRep GmbH . In: BigRep GmbH . April 21, 2017 ( bigrep.com [accessed November 27, 2018]).
8. ↑ WestLB AG sells Klöckner & Co AG to Lindsay Goldberg & Bessemer-Fonds
9. ↑ Share accessed on November 3, 2016.
10. ↑ Klöckner press release of April 13, 2007 ( Memento of the original of April 29, 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. 
11. ↑ Press release from Klöckner & Co dated August 8, 2008 ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ Press release from Klöckner & Co dated November 11, 2009 ( Memento of the original from April 29, 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. 
13. ↑ Press release from Klöckner & Co from January 25, 2010 ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 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. 
14. ↑ Press release from Klöckner & Co dated March 1, 2010 ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 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. 
15. ↑ Press release from Klöckner & Co of April 29, 2011 ( Memento of the original of April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ Press release from Klöckner & Co dated May 6, 2011 ( memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ↑ Website Klöckner & Co / Geschichte ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2015 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. 
18. ↑ Press release from Klöckner & Co dated March 6, 2013 ( Memento of the original dated October 27, 2017 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. 
19. ↑ Klöckner & Co SE: “Klöckner & Co 2022” - our strategy | Klöckner & Co SE . ( kloeckner.com [accessed on March 2, 2017]).
20. ↑ kununu seal of approval
21. ↑ Women's Career Index