Spar trading company
| Edeka Central Trade and Production GmbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1952 |
| Seat |
Hamburg , Germany
|
| Number of employees | 17,161 (2005) |
| Website | www.spar-express.de |
The Spar Handelsgesellschaft mbH (to December 2005 Spar Handels AG, proper spelling: SPAR ) was the core of an important group of companies in the food retail trade in Germany. It lost its independence in 1997 and, after restructuring, has been a subsidiary of Edeka Zentrale AG & Co KG since September 2005 . All major markets were flagged to Edeka; only smaller supermarkets remained under the Spar Express brand . In August 2013, the company was renamed Edeka Zentrale Handel und Produktion GmbH , based in Hamburg.
history
construction
The German savings organization was founded in 1952 based on the Dutch model. It is a voluntary association of wholesalers and retailers. The founders of the chain were Werner Hagen, Rolf Knigge and Franz Weissbecker. They feared that independent wholesalers and retailers would have no future on their own against the financially strong chain stores or the cooperative-based retail chains ( Edeka as dealer cooperatives, Konsum as consumer cooperatives ). The initiative for this association lay with independent wholesalers, whose customers then formed the largest voluntary retail chain in Germany under the name Spar.
The association joined:
- 1952 Lisseborn / Jürgens, Braunschweig; Karl Koch, Düsseldorf; Hammerschlag, Limburg; Schimmelpfeng, Bad Hersfeld; Störzbach, Ellhofen
- 1953 Pfeiffer & Sukop, Hamburg; H. Mezger, Ulm.
- This year the first own private labels were introduced.
- 1954 G. Scharpe, Obernkirchen
- 1955 Hansen & Höpner, Flensburg; Gustav Georgi, Gochsheim; Carl Louis Rosa, Schweinfurt; J. Röger, Weiden; Schaal-Kurtz, Reutlingen
- 1958 Bernhard Schmidt, Hamburg; J. Probst, Kaufbeuren
From these independent wholesalers, the regional savings centers developed through mergers and further takeovers. In 1952 regional trade associations were formed, which in 1955 became the Deutsche Handelsvereinigung Spar e. V. merged. This association was the instrument of decision-making for the wholesalers and retailers involved.
growth
The growth phase to larger units began around 1966.
- A mail order business started in 1960.
- Spar Bremen and Spar Oldenburg were taken over in 1966 by Bernhard Schmidt, Hamburg.
- In 1967 Spar Lüneburg and Bernhard Schmidt were merged.
- In 1968 the first German headquarters was founded, Deutsche Spar Handels GmbH & Co. This company was responsible for the central procurement of goods and the processing of payment transactions between wholesalers and suppliers. In that year, the chapter on hypermarkets began under the company name P & Q.
- In 1969 Spar Südwest was founded. 1974 Georgii Rosa joined Spar Südwest.
- In 1975 the Spar head offices Hamburg Süd and Hamburg Nord merged to form Pfeiffer & Schmidt oHG , based in Schenefeld (Pinneberg district) and formed the Spar head office in Hamburg.
- In 1977 Deutsche Spar achieved sales of 7.542 billion DM.
- In 1980 the companies Hansen & Höpner, Flensburg (Spar) and Großhandels-Union Nord, Jürgensen & Ingwersen, Husum ( VIVO ) became the Spar Handelsunion Husum-Flensburg.
- In 1981 Schaal-Kurtz and in 1982 Schimmelpfeng went to Spar Südwest. The Spar Handelsunion Husum-Flensburg was taken over in 1982 by Pfeiffer & Schmidt oHG.
- The year 1982 also led to an excursion into the non-food trade with the establishment of the subsidiary KODi . This attempted to transfer the business model of the food discounters to the non-food business.
Concentration and expansion
- The Spar Handels AG was founded 1985th This company participated in the regional wholesale centers in the following years. The share has been listed on the stock exchange since 1988 .
- In 1989 Spar Handels AG was listed on the stock exchange.
This accelerated expansion at the retail level and continued concentration in the wholesale area.
- In 1989 Spar Handels AG took over the supermarket chain Himmelreich in Cologne-Porz. The Spar Südwest went into the AG this year.
- 1990/91 was the time of expansion to East Germany . 2000 HO shops were taken over and Spar Nordost was founded. Spar Nordost was incorporated into the AG in 1992.
- SPAR Handels AG has held a 25% stake in Netto Supermarket GmbH in Stavenhagen since 1992 . Partner was Dansk Supermarked . In addition, in 1992 the Kafu Wasmund stores in Braunschweig and the branches of the consumer cooperative in Berlin were taken over.
- In 1993, 103 Asko stores in the Braunschweig, Hanover and Bremen area were taken over. The companies of the Interspar Group were incorporated into Spar Handels AG.
- In 1994 the Potsdamer KG Frischmarkt-Warenhandel with 60 stores was taken over.
Crisis and redevelopment
- In 1995 the Spar group started to get into crisis. The bulk consumer supplier Franke & Panzer , which belongs to the group , was sold to Rewe . The logistics center east in Mittenwalde (Brandenburg) went into operation.
- From 1996, the salvation was sought in further accelerated growth through further takeovers. This year were
- 11 Kling & Sohn Eurospar stores in Pirmasens,
- 66 Bolle markets in Berlin and
- 36 large Continent hypermarkets of Sulzbacher Promohypermarkt AG & Co. KG (former German subsidiary of the French retail giant Promodès) integrated.
- Kathreiner's wholesale business was taken over.
- The retailer Contzen assigned the supply of 600 stores under the names VeGe and Vivo to Spar Handels AG.
- In 1997, eight hypermarkets and one cash & carry store were taken over by Holzer Parkkauf.
- Rapid growth through acquisitions and intra-group mergers was followed in 1997 by Spar Handels AG's loss of independence.
The French trading group ITM Entreprises SA became the majority shareholder in SPAR Handels AG through its Swiss subsidiary Intercontessa AG. The result is now the No. 1 in the European food trade.
In 1998, with the takeover of the Karlsruher Pfannkuch Group with 212 stores (Pfannkuch / Kolossa), PRO Hamburg (a former consumer cooperative ) with 152 stores and 32 stores in the Kassel area, the growth path continued.
The takeover by ITM led to a strategic realignment of the Spar Group. It focused on small and medium-sized sales areas. 74 large Interspar hypermarkets were given up and central purchasing was set up with partner ITM, the Swiss Agenor AG . In 1999 the remaining Interspar stores were changed to Eurospar. From 2000 Eurospar became Intermarché .
The new line was called concentration on core competencies: wholesale for the SPAR retailers, hypermarkets, food discount ( Netto Marken-Discount and Netto ). In the years that followed, this led to the giving up and giving up of various parts of the company:
- Online trading ceased and the non-food discounter Kodi was sold.
- In 2002 the C + C stores were given up.
- In 2003 74 hypermarkets were closed and 117 transferred to new owners. 4 of 15 warehouse locations were closed.
- In 2004 other hypermarkets were outsourced. ITM increases its stake in SPAR Handels AG. Spar gave its shares in Netto Marken-Discount and Netto to ITM.
Significance of the group in 2004
- Shortly before the takeover, at the end of 2004 there were still 2,173 independent retailers operating on the market under the Spar , Superspar or Spar express sales lines . The group still owned 35 hypermarkets under the Eurospar and Intermarché sales lines . The 1,073 Netto branches of both Netto chains were sold to the parent company ITM in 2004 and thus remained in the group of companies.
- For 2004, the group posted sales of EUR 6.3 billion. Of this, 2.5 billion euros went to wholesale, 0.4 billion euros to consumer markets and 3.4 billion euros to the last consolidated Netto group.
- Another loss was incurred in operational business. The annual result was clearly positive due to the sale of the Netto Group.
- The number of employees fell by 3,614 to 17,161.
End as an independent company
The takeover
In 2005 ITM became the sole owner. The headquarters changed its legal form and became SPAR Handelsgesellschaft mbH. On September 12, 2005, ITM sold this and Netto Marken-Discount as well as 25% of Netto to Edeka -Zentrale AG. That meant deep cuts for the savings organization in Germany. The supply of over 2000 independent Spar retailers was transferred to the seven Edeka regional companies. Spar Handels AG, which still had 2,800 employees at the end of 2005, has been shrunk considerably and has been incorporated into Edeka. Regional warehouses were merged. The closure of all logistics locations except Schenefeld was announced.
After the takeover
Almost all branches of the Spar Group were taken over by EDEKA and are now also managed under this name. Spar Handelsgesellschaft mbH will, however, continue to operate the “Spar Express” format. The focus should be on convenience lines, i.e. mainly ready meals and goods for direct consumption. Furthermore, you will be able to purchase the basic range here at normal supermarket prices and for longer than in a normal supermarket.
literature
- Dieter Graff: Spar - largest voluntary retail chain . Publication of the Eurohandelsinstituts e. V. Verlag DHI, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-87257-151-6 , ( Encyclopedia of Commerce ), (2nd edition: Verlag DHI, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-87257-194-X ).
- ↑ according to the change in the commercial register
