Quieter trading company
| Leiser Handelsgesellschaft mbH
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1891 |
| Seat | Augsburg , Bavaria , in Berlin since 2016 |
| management |
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| Number of employees | approx. 1,200 |
| sales | 200 million euros (2009) |
| Branch | retail trade |
| Website | www.leiser.de |
Leiser is a German shoe retail company based in Augsburg , Bavaria with around 65 branches, which originated in Berlin in 1891 , where it was of great importance. After the Second World War , the company was headed from Augsburg, Bavaria-Swabia, where it was part of the Bahner Group. After bankruptcy, the Bahner Group was taken over in 2012 by Josef Seibel Schuhfabrik GmbH, a shoe manufacturer based in Hauenstein in Rhineland-Palatinate .
history
In 1891, Julius Klausner and his uncle, the egg dealer Hermann Leiser, opened a shoe shop at Oranienstrasse 34 in Berlin's Kreuzberg district . Branches were soon opened. In 1906, the company trading as Leiser opened at Tauentzienstrasse 20 next to KaDeWe, which was Berlin's largest shoe store at the time. This branch still exists today. In 1925 it was followed by its own production facility for shoes, which employed 600 people in the early 1930s and produced women's shoes under the “Wertsiegel” brand. At that time, Leiser was also the largest shoe retailer in Berlin with 23 branches and in 1934 had around 25% market share.
On April 1, 1933, Leiser branches were affected by the so-called Jewish boycotts . In 1935/37 Julius Klausner sold 75% of his shares to the Bahner family, owners of the Saxon stocking manufacturer Elbeo , in order to avoid expropriation (" Aryanization of Jewish property"). A few months later he avoided his arrest by fleeing to Buenos Aires. Dietrich Bahner , son of the Elbeo owner, who took over the management at the age of 22, had been working at Leiser since 1933. He transferred profit shares to Argentina until 1941. Only three branches, including the two founding branches, were spared the war.
After the end of National Socialism, Klausner received 50% of his shares back. The other half remained with Dietrich Bahner, who settled in Augsburg and took over the August Wessels GmbH shoe factory there . He financed the purchase by liquidating two of the company's alternative warehouses, which had remained undamaged with 250,000 pairs of shoes in American-occupied Saxony, with which he raised two million Reichsmarks. Leiser was also administered from Augsburg, and in later years from nearby Aystetten .
Bahner soon founded the favorite shoe wholesale company and the Leiser-Werke Augsburg, and in 1952 took over the Dorndorf shoe factory in Zweibrücken . In 1960 he acquired HAKO Schuh AG, and in 1970 the remaining shares in Leiser from the descendants of Klausner, who had died in 1950. In the same year Bahner, whose engagements now also included textiles, dry cleaning and a bank in addition to his shoe empire, was certified as having "sales of several 100 million marks". Between 1962 and 1984, Leiser took over shoe retailers familiar to customers in Berlin, where a head office had been established in Neukölln in 1961 , such as Schuh-Neumann with 15 branches, Carl Stiller with 24 and Wielant-Schuh with 19 branches. Owner Dietrich Bahner was also involved in the FDP and was its Bavarian state chairman at the end of the 1960s. In the 1970s he held positions in various right-wing liberal splinter parties.
After reunification, the business expanded into the new federal states, and the first East Berlin branch on Alexanderplatz opened before reunification. Branches were also opened in Prague .
After Dietrich Bahner's death, his son Christian joined his brother Thomas, who had been running the company for many years. After Christian Bahner's accidental death in 1992, his wife Susanne, who received the state medal for special services to the Bavarian economy at the end of 2010 , joined the company and, after the departure of brother-in-law Thomas Bahner, led it to bankruptcy in 2012. Their children Kevin too Bahner, who today buys and sells vintage and youngtimers in Irsingen near Augsburg, and J. Elin Bahner-Heyne were involved in the company.
After the company got into financial difficulties, the shoe manufacturer Josef Seibel, based in Hauenstein in Rhineland-Palatinate, joined Leiser with 49% in July 2010 . At the time, Seibel had around 30 retail stores in addition to manufacturing. On March 23, 2012, the management of Leiser Fabrikations- und Handelsgesellschaft GmbH & Co. KG, Schuhhof GmbH and Leiser Handelsgesellschaft mbH - i.e. the Bahner Group - filed applications for the initiation of insolvency plan proceedings and self-administration in order to restructure the company. For the first time in the retail industry, the law that came into force on March 1, 2012 was applied to further facilitate the restructuring of companies .
In August 2012, the Seibel Group took over all shares in the Bahner Group, which most recently posted sales of 190 million euros. After a 450-strong workforce reduction, Leiser should only employ 1000 people after the insolvency proceedings. Initially, 30 of the company's 170 branches were closed.
In 2013, Leiser had 20 branches in Berlin, 24 in the old and 16 in the new federal states and two in Prague. Until his second impending insolvency in 2017, Leiser also sold its range online.
The range includes "high quality shoes for the whole family". Accessories such as bags, belts, hosiery as well as fittings and soles complete the range. The company currently operates a multi-brand strategy. Brands are for example Bunte, Elsner Schuh, Hako, Haslbeck, Kleinhans, Köchling, Lanz, Holzäpfel, Pöhlmann, Putschky, Schreiber by Leiser, Stiller, Tewes, Tizian, Schuh Klein and Schuhhaus Hoffmann. A new main collection is offered twice a year, and intermediate collections several times a year.
In 2017, after 2012, Leiser was again insolvent, on the basis of which the company applied for protective shield proceedings, as a result of which insolvency proceedings were now opened.
On April 15, 2018 , stumbling blocks for Dora and Julius Klausner were laid in front of their former place of residence, Berlin-Charlottenburg , Fasanenstrasse 83 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Leiser-Grandson tells in the video ( memento of the original from December 27, 2012 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.
- ↑ Michael Wildt: When the persecution of the Jews began, Tagesspiegel online, March 28, 2013, accessed on June 1, 2015
- ↑ Existence in the backpack: Leiser Teilhaber , Der Spiegel 30/1949.
- ↑ Men's shoes test. Paul Examiner. Quieter: Shoes from Berlin .
- ↑ Renate Platen: Quieter becomes louder. (No longer available online.) Textilwirtschaft.de, May 16, 2002, archived from the original on November 26, 2013 ; Retrieved October 18, 2013 . 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.
- ↑ http://www.schuhmarkt-news.de/handel/unternehmen/show/11006-Bahner-Gruppe-Reststrukturierung-ist-alternativlos/
- ↑ http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/wirtschaft/Leiser-startet-mit-neuem-Eigentuemer-id21996076.html
- ↑ Step into a better future: Seibel takes over insolvent Leiser completely with Greenfort help , Juve, August 28, 2012.
- ↑ Andrea Wenzel: Leiser shoe chain pulls the rip cord. March 31, 2017, accessed July 11, 2017 .
