Louis motorcycle
| Detlev Louis Motorrad-Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1938/1977 as a GmbH |
| Seat | Hamburg , Germany |
| management |
|
| Number of employees | approx. 1,900 (January 2019) |
| sales | > EUR 270 million |
| Branch | Mail order , retail |
| Website | www.louis.de |
The Detlev Louis Motorcycle mbH is a store and mail order company for motorcycle clothing, spare parts and accessories. The company was founded in 1938 and is based in Hamburg .
history
The company was founded in 1938 by Walter Lohmann in Hamburg. Detlev Louis joined the company in 1946, which is why the company was renamed to Detlev Louis Motorradvertriebs GmbH , which is still valid today . At that time four people were employed. In the following years, the Louis company traded in scooters and motorcycles of the brands AJS , Heinkel and Adler . In addition to selling the vehicles, a workshop was operated. In 1960 the Louis company moved into a newly built shop with an attached workshop in Rentzelstrasse near the Hamburg television tower . Germany's largest motorcycle shop opened its doors. In 1967 the first mail order catalog appeared with 24 pages in DIN A5 format. The content was a small selection of functional leather motorcycle clothing and some accessories. The range of motorcycles was expanded to include the brands BSA , BMW and Matchless and, in 1968, Honda . From 1969 to 1975 the company was the general importer of the emerging Kawasaki motorcycles for Germany.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Louis company also imported Italian motorcycles of the Laverda and Malaguti brands . In addition to Detlev Louis, Günther Albrecht became managing partners of the company in 1977 and Stephan Louis , son of Detlev Louis, in 1981 . The administration, shop, warehouse and workshop of the Louis company moved to Süderstraße in 1977, where a shop is still in operation today. In 1981 the first Louis branch outside Hamburg opened its doors in Hanover . Since then, the Louis branch network has continued to grow in Germany and Austria. In 2007, 60 shops were operated, each with a sales area of up to 2,400 m².
With the success in the sale of motorcycle clothing and accessories, the importance of vehicle sales dwindled, so that in the early 1990s vehicle sales were completely discontinued. In 1991 the Louis company moved into a modern logistics center with conveyor technology in Hamburg-Allermöhe on the A25 with administration and warehouse . In 1994, 1998, 2006, 2010 and 2016 the logistics center was expanded significantly so that the storage area is now over 50,000 m². In 1997, sales were expanded to include online trading, which in 2014 generated around 20% of sales.
In October 2012, the owner of the company of the same name, Detlev Louis, died.
The online shop for France started in 2014.
In February 2015 bought Warren Buffett about his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway Detlev Louis for about 400 million US dollars .
The first branch opened in Switzerland in 2016.
The online shops for the Netherlands and Italy started in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The first branch in the Netherlands opened in 2019 and Louis employs over 1,700 people in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland, 160 of whom are trainees.
In 2020 the online shops for Denmark and Poland started.
Sales structure
Over-the-counter trade: almost 100 shops in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland with a total of over 35,000 m² sales area. Mail order: 9 online shops in 5 languages. Central warehouse in Hamburg-Allermöhe with over 50,000 m² of storage space.
Range and own brands
The range includes over 35,000 items from the areas of clothing for motorcyclists, scooters & quad riders, outdoor (e.g. tents, camping accessories), backpacks and motorcycle travel bags, gifts (e.g. tin signs, finished models, books, DVDs, repair instructions) and technical articles (e.g. motorcycle navigation devices, helmet intercoms, Bluetooth headsets, tools, locks, motorcycle jacks, wearing parts, oils, cleaning and care products, spare parts).
Louis is the sole importer of the following brands (own brands) in Germany:
- AJS (classic motorcycle clothing)
- Cycle Spirit (motorcycle clothing)
- Fastway (motorcycle clothing)
- Highway 1 (motorcycle clothing, helmets)
- Streetfighter (motorcycle clothing, helmets, exhaust systems)
- Vanucci (motorcycle clothing)
- Super Shield (protectors)
- MTR (helmets)
- Probiker (motorcycle clothing, helmets)
- DELO (batteries and air filters)
- Moto detail (luggage, transport systems)
- North Cape (tents, sleeping bags)
- Outdoor (camping equipment)
- Procharger (chargers, vehicle electrics)
- Procycle (engine oils, care products)
- Rothewald (quality motorcycle tools)
- Saito (motorcycle consumables)
Awards
- 2015 www.louis.de is the test winner in a comparative test of 9 online shops of the magazine "Tourenfahrer" (edition 12/2015)
-
"Motorrad" magazine
- Best Brand Award (best chain of branches) from MOTORRAD magazine in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
- 2020 MOTORRAD magazine's Best Brands Awards for the first time with the "best online shop" category. The Louis online shop wins. (Issue 9/20)
- awarded by the industry information service "Der Versandhausberater", FID Verlags GmbH and the Federal Association of German Mail Order Companies (bvh):
- 2011 Lifetime Award for Detlev Louis (personal)
- 2011 "Consignor of the year 2011"
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Birger Nicolai: Louis expands business more than ever. In: Welt Online . March 1, 2010, accessed September 3, 2016 .
- ↑ Birger Nicolai: Detlev Louis doesn't want to be a cheap Jakob. In: Welt Online. December 27, 2011, accessed September 3, 2016 .
- ↑ Detlev Louis died. In: Obituary. Motorrad online , October 15, 2012, archived from the original on April 11, 2013 ; retrieved on February 23, 2015 : "Detlev Louis, owner of the company of the same name, died on October 13, 2012 at the age of 93."
- ↑ Arne Gottschalck: Takeover from Detlev Louis. Why Buffett accesses a German biker shop. In: manager magazin . February 20, 2015, accessed February 23, 2015 .
- ^ Apprenticeship at Louis - BildungsAtlas.de . In: BildungAtlas.de . ( ausbildungsatlas.de [accessed on June 26, 2020]).
- ↑ Motorcycle 9/2006
- ↑ published in the Best Brand special supplement in Motorrad 9/2007
- ↑ published in the Best Brand special supplement in Motorrad 9/2008
- ↑ published in the Best Brand special supplement in Motorrad 9/2009
- ↑ Detlev Louis receives the "Lifetime Award" ( Memento from September 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Louis is "Consignor of the Year 2011" ( Memento from September 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive )