Otto Group

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Otto (GmbH & Co KG)

logo
legal form GmbH & Co. KG
founding 17th August 1949
Seat Hamburg , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
  • Alexander Birken, CEO
  • Marcus Ackermann
  • Sebastian Klauke
  • Petra Scharner-Wolff
  • Kay Schiebur
  • Sergio Bucher
Number of employees 51,982 (2019/20)
sales 14.3 billion euros (2019/20)
Branch Trade and service group
Website www.ottogroup.com

The Otto (GmbH & Co KG) (formerly Otto Versand (GmbH & Co) , Otto Group) is a German trading and service company based in Hamburg , which operates worldwide with around 50,000 employees and in the business segments retail , finance and logistics and mail order business is active.

Retail is the business core. The group generates over 74 percent of all revenues in this segment through its around 100 online shops worldwide. This means that Otto is one of the largest online retailers in the consumer business after Amazon.com and the largest online retailer for fashion and lifestyle for end consumers in Europe.

The Otto brand is worth around USD 1.3 billion in 2020. In 2012, the group took tenth place in the ranking of the 500 largest family businesses in Germany by the Wirtschaftsblatt magazine .

Company history

Extract from the first Otto catalog in 1950
Otto brand logo
Otto headquarters of the mail order business in Hamburg-Bramfeld

In August 1949, 40-year-old Werner Otto founded the Werner Otto Versandhandel company in Hamburg-Schnelsen . In the following year, 1950, the first catalog appeared, in which 28 pairs of shoes were presented on 14 hand-bound pages. The edition was 300 copies. Otto was the first of the mail order companies to introduce purchase on account. In 1951, the first printed catalog had 28 pages and offered an expanded range, which included shoes, briefcases, raincoats and trousers. By 1953, Otto quintupled sales in less than two years. The catalog was already printed at 37,000 copies. In 1958 Otto Versand, as a universal mail order company, was one of the major companies in Germany with a turnover of 100 million DM .

In 1960, after strong expansion, Otto Versand moved into the new 205,000 m² company building in Hamburg-Bramfeld , having previously been stationed in Hamburg-Hamm from 1955 . The number of employees grew to 2000. In 1966 the first purchasing office in Asia was opened in Hong Kong. Günter Nawrath took over the chairmanship in 1966.

In 1968, the Post-Shop-Magazin was the first Otto special catalog. The following year the Hanseatic Bank was founded, through which customers could finance their orders. At the same time the Werner Otto Foundation for the promotion of medical research was established in Hamburg. In 1972, Hermes Versand established its own delivery service.

With investments in 3 Suisses International in 1974 started the development of an international corporation with its own SB - department stores , attached to the same year Horten AG were sold. In the same year Otto joined the Heinrich Heine company in Karlsruhe . In 1978 the Otto Group achieved sales of DM 3.176 billion and employed 10,740 people.

In 1980 the company entered the tourism industry with the founding of Otto Reisen GmbH . In 1981, the chairman of the board, Günter Nawrath, moved to the supervisory board. Michael Otto took over as CEO of the Otto Group. In 1982 mail order sales alone amounted to around DM 3.9 billion .

As part of the new advertising campaign, the slogan "Otto ... I think that's good." Was used for the first time in 1986 and developed into a catchphrase. In 1990 the 24-hour express service was introduced. In 1992 Hermes Versand delivered the 500 millionth shipment.

In 1993 Michael Otto established the Michael Otto Foundation for Environmental Protection. In 1994 Otto-Versand was the first mail-order company to present its range on an interactive CD-ROM. In 1995 the company went online . In 1997 the company joined Baur Versand . In 2000 the group expanded its company portfolio with the founding of discount24 and travelchannel.de.

The two Austrian brands of the Otto Group, Universal and Otto, were bundled into Unito Versand & Dienstleistungen in 2003 , and the mail order business in Germany was renamed Otto (GmbH & Co KG). In 2005 the Otto Group sold 75 percent of the shares in the Hanseatic Bank to Société Générale , Paris. Two years later, Hans-Otto Schrader became the new CEO of the Otto Group, succeeding Michael Otto.

In a bidding process in 2009, the Otto Group secured the rights to the Quelle brand and numerous trademarks such as Privileg as well as all shares in Quelle Russia, and later in 2012 that of the Neckermann.de brand . The company's founder Werner Otto died in 2011 at the age of 102. In 2012, the Otto Group founded a joint company with the Brazilian mail order company Posthaus to promote the e-commerce business in Brazil. In the same year it was announced that the Otto Group will cut 700 jobs by October 2013. Despite the situation, Otto was the largest online retailer for fashion in Germany to date, together with the establishment of About You , which was also evident in sales.

In 2014, founding grandson Benjamin Otto marked his entry into the group with the introduction of the fashion start-up Collins. On June 1, 2015, he handed over his position as CEO to co-founder Tarek Müller in order to help shape the transformation of the Otto Group on the Group's supervisory bodies. In the same year, Otto Group Media was founded as its own company for online advertising marketing. Among other things, he expanded the area of ​​online furniture trading , including the creation of special shops.

In the 2015/2016 financial year, over 90 percent of sales from mail order sales were achieved via the Internet, which, according to a study by the EHI Retail Institute and Statista , makes Otto the second largest German online retailer behind Amazon.com . In the same year, Otto Now, a new brand for renting out products, was founded.

With effect from January 1, 2017, Alexander Birken, previously Group Board Member for Multichannel Distance Selling and spokesman for the Otto company, took over as CEO of the Otto Group. The long-standing chairman of the board, Hans-Otto Schrader, changes to the supervisory board when he reaches the age limit for board members.

The last Otto main catalog was published as a printed edition in December 2018.

Business areas and group companies

Headquarters of the Otto Group in Hamburg-Bramfeld

The group is active internationally in various business areas, including subsidiaries in Switzerland, Austria, France, the United Kingdom, the USA, Japan, the People's Republic of China and Russia. The Otto Group has a total of 123 major group companies. a. operate under the umbrella brands listed below.

The family-owned ECE Projektmanagement , which has owned or managed shopping centers and other real estate mainly in Europe since 1965 and is managed by Alexander Otto , a brother of Michael Otto, does not belong to the Otto Group .

The segments of the Otto Group, which generated total sales of 13.446 billion euros in the 2018/19 financial year, are:

Multichannel retail

The goods and products are offered through the three sales channels e-commerce , stationary retail and catalog. The group employs 24,789 people worldwide in this segment and achieved sales of 10.3 billion euros in the 2018/19 financial year, with 74% of segment sales being generated through e-commerce. The segment generated 76.8% of group sales. These include the around 100 online shops of retailers such as myToys.de and Otto , the pure online providers such as Limango and Mirapodo, the Shopping24 group and the corporate venture activities of the group (investment in start-up companies ). The Otto Group is represented in over 400 shops worldwide; around 1800 different catalogs are sent to customers every year.

Furthermore, in multi-channel retailing u. a. active:

Financial services

The focus of this segment is on retail-related products such as consumer loans or liquidity management. With 7,074 employees, sales in this area amounted to 823.6 million euros in the 2018/19 financial year (6.1% of the Group's total sales). The company with the highest turnover in the segment is the EOS Group , which is active with 49 subsidiaries in 27 countries. The focus of the activity is receivables management, including debt purchase and debt collection . Furthermore, u. a. the Hanseatic Bank is active in this segment.

service

Hermes Europe logo

The Service segment comprises the logistics and travel service providers as well as the purchasing companies of the Otto Group. With 20,274 employees, external sales of 2.3 billion euros were generated in the 2018/19 financial year, which makes up 17.1% of the Group's total sales. According to Hermes Europe , this segment is essentially characterized by the group companies operating under the Hermes umbrella brand . This also includes the subsidiary Hermes Fulfillment , owner of the goods distribution centers of Otto Versandhandel in Haldensleben , Ohrdruf , Löhne , Hanau and Altenkunstadt .

At the end of August 2020 it was announced that the Otto Group, as the majority owner , will withdraw from Hermes Europe and sell 25% of Hermes Germany to Advent International , including 75% from Hermes Great Britain.

Sustainability initiatives

According to the Otto Group, it supports various initiatives to ensure sustainability .

  • The Asian Floor Wage Campaign for the implementation of living minimum wages in Asia.
  • In 2009, a joint trust was set up with Muhammad Yunus' microfinance bank to operate the Grameen Otto Textile Company , a textile factory in Bangladesh .
  • In 2013 Otto announced that it would be producing all of the cotton required for its own products in a sustainable manner by 2020 and that all wood used for furniture would be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council , thus reducing CO 2 emissions by half compared to 2006/07.
  • In March 2014, the Otto clothing donation was introduced with Creating Platz mit Herz , which passes the profits on to the non-profit organization Initiative Zukunft gGmbH .

criticism

  • In 1996 the Christian Initiative Romero reported violations of labor law at Otto's suppliers in Central America .
  • In the years 1997–2005 the Südwind Institute uncovered legal violations in China , Indonesia and the Philippines , which Otto also supplied.
  • In December 2006 it became known that Heine Versand used repeated child labor at an Indian supplier .
  • On August 3, 2011, ARD broadcast exclusively with The Hermes Principle, a television documentary about the employment of sub- subcontractors at Hermes, which contains the accusation of employing them without a valid legal relationship with the actual client under unworthy conditions in order to save personnel costs. In another post on August 25, 2011 by Monitor , the topic was dealt with repeatedly.

Web links

Commons : Otto Group  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Category: Otto group  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Otto Group Annual Report 2019/20. Otto Group, May 6, 2020, accessed on July 13, 2020 .
  2. ↑ https://www.kantartns.de/presse/presseinformation.asp?prID=3703
  3. ^ Michael Kranz: Wirtschaftsblatt Ranking: Between Neckarsulm and Dörverden. Top 500 - The Great Family Business Report 2012 . In: Wirtschaftsblatt , pp. 70–82, here p. 72 (PDF; 707 kB).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Timeline. In: werner-otto.info. ECE Projektmanagement GmbH & Co. KG, August 12, 2011, accessed on May 31, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Huge topping-out wreath. In: Historical Archive Hamburger Abendblatt . December 17, 1955, accessed October 23, 2014 .
  6. ↑ Otto takes over Quelle trademark rights. Deutscher Fachverlag GmbH, November 5, 2009, accessed June 5, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Otto Group takes over trademark rights and domains from Neckermann.de . ( Memento of December 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Otto press release, November 22, 2012, accessed on May 19, 2019.
  8. ↑ Entrepreneur legend Werner Otto dies. In: tagesschau.de . December 27, 2011, archived from the original on January 7, 2012 ; Retrieved June 26, 2012 .
  9. ^ Mail order company founder Werner Otto is dead. In: Spiegel Online . December 27, 2011, accessed June 26, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Otto Group wants to become the market leader in e-commerce in Brazil. In: etailment.de. May 10, 2012, accessed June 5, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Otto-Versand before massive job cuts. In: Manager Magazin Online. September 20, 2012, accessed October 23, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Otto attacks the furniture trade. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . October 18, 2013, accessed October 23, 2014 .
  13. ↑ Business The greatest. The year of the stationary. In: TextilWirtschaft. October 24, 2013, accessed May 19, 2019 .
  14. ↑ OTTO is growing very profitably. In: Press release Otto. March 19, 2014, accessed October 23, 2014 .
  15. ↑ The Otto grandson and the online revolution. In: Manager Magazin Online. May 5, 2014, accessed June 12, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Benjamin Otto becomes a creative partner in the Otto Group. Otto Group, April 20, 2015, archived from the original on June 9, 2015 ; Retrieved June 12, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Otto Group founds start-up in the field of data-driven advertising. Otto Group, May 20, 2015, archived from the original on June 14, 2015 ; Retrieved June 12, 2015 .
  18. ↑ OTTO is expanding its leading position in the Living range. In: Press release Otto. September 29, 2014, accessed October 23, 2014 .
  19. ↑ The 10 largest online shops . In: W&V Online , September 20, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2017.
  20. ↑ OTTO NOW - rent instead of buy - Otto (GmbH & Co KG). Retrieved December 24, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Alexander Birken: The new Otto boss faces these tasks. In: www.wiwo.de. Retrieved January 6, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Otto is retiring his catalog . In: Focus Online , July 9, 2018.
  23. ↑ Confessions of a catalog reader: Otto ... I thought it was good! In: Spiegel Online . July 22, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Eckart Gienke (dpa): End of a long era: last Otto catalog goes to print . n-tv.de, November 22, 2018, accessed on November 26, 2018.
  25. ↑ a b group companies . ottogroup.com, accessed March 16, 2017.
  26. ↑ a b c d Otto Group Annual Report 2018/19. Otto Group, May 22, 2019, accessed June 5, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 24, 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / eosholding.com
  28. ↑ paketda.de: Now officially: Otto sells Hermes - but not to FedEx ; accessed on May 30, 2020
  29. ↑ Frank Wiebe: How sustainable is the mail order company Otto really? . Wirtschaftswoche . Archived from the original on July 30, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  30. ↑ Michael Schneider: Otto and Nobel Prize Winner Yunus build a textile factory . The world . November 11, 2009. Archived from the original on July 30, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  31. ↑ Otto Group: Otto Group and Grameen found a modern social business for the production of textiles - factory of the future . Archived from the original on July 30, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  32. ↑ Ulrike Abratis: Make new out of old - designer Julia Starp gives Otto advertising posters a second life . themenportal.de. Archived from the original on July 30, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013.
  33. ^ Flood of clothing donations at the Red Cross in Norderstedt. In: Hamburger Abendblatt . Retrieved October 23, 2014 .
  34. ^ Ingeborg Wick: Sewing for the world market. Women's work in export zones and the shadow economy. Country examples China, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Fashion multinationals put to the test. Edited by the Südwind Institute for Economics and Ecumenism, Siegburg 2005
  35. ↑ Company profile: Otto . ( Memento of December 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Clean clothes campaign website , accessed December 11, 2015.

Coordinates: 53 ° 36 ′ 6 ″  N , 10 ° 4 ′ 22 ″  E