WMF Group

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WMF Group

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1853
Seat Geislingen an der Steige , Germany
management
  • Oliver Kastalio (Chairman of the Management Board)
  • Bernd Stoeppel (Managing Director)
  • Thierry de La Tour d'Artaise (Chairman of the Supervisory Board)
Number of employees 6,500
Branch Manufacturing
Website wmf-group.com

WMF products have been produced at the company's headquarters in Geislingen / Steige since 1853

The WMF Group GmbH (formerly WMF AG, for W ürttembergische M etallwaren f abrik) is a formerly listed manufacturer of household, catering and hotel goods, which was founded in 1853 by Daniel Straub and the Schweizer brothers. In 1880 the Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik AG was created through the merger with Ritter & Co. The company is based in Geislingen an der Steige .

WMF has been part of the French household appliance manufacturer Groupe SEB since 2016 .

portrait

The group holds six brands (WMF, Silit , Kaiser, Schaerer , Hepp and Curtis), is represented at over 40 locations worldwide and has almost 200 company-owned branches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The WMF Group produces household and hotel goods, including cookware , kitchen appliances , cutlery , drinking glasses and professional coffee machines .

history

founding

The company emerged from the metal goods factory "Straub & Schweizer", which was founded in Geislingen an der Steige in 1853 by Geislingen miller Daniel Straub together with brothers and trained metalworkers Louis and Friedrich Schweizer. This was Straub's second industrial establishment, as the Geislingen machine factory emerged in 1850 from a repair workshop that he had founded in connection with the construction of the Geislinger Steige , which primarily manufactured mill turbines and sold them throughout Europe. From 1862 Gottlieb Daimler worked for about three years as a designer for the metal goods factory Straub & Schweizer. After the Swiss brothers left, the factory was renamed “Straub & Sohn” in 1866. The first branch emerged from the sample warehouse located in Berlin.

In 1880, on the advice of the Württembergische Vereinsbank led by Kilian von Steiner, the company merged with the then financially weakened but more progressive metal goods factory "Ritter & Co", Esslingen am Neckar , to form the "Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik" in the legal form of a stock corporation . WMF was founded and was listed on the Stuttgart stock exchange on September 9, 1887 . The Württembergische Vereinsbank became the majority shareholder in the new company, but gave this majority to the Stuttgart manufacturer and politician Gustav Siegle as early as 1882 . The descendants of the Siegle family subsequently remained majority shareholders in WMF for almost 100 years until their shares were sold in 1980.

In 1881 the company founded a company health insurance fund with compulsory membership and above-average benefits for its employees. Its own company savings bank followed in 1883 and a youth home in 1907. In 1887, the company also founded the WMF welfare association for its employees, which offered various social benefits free of charge or at low prices.

20th century

Share of 100 RM in the Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik from April 1942
WMF Group's headquarters in Geislingen

In 1900 WMF already employed 3,000 people. In 1912 - in times of rising meat prices - the company built its own hall, the so-called fish hall, to sell fish at cost to employees in Geislingen . This hall exists under this name to this day and has housed the company's factory outlet since the 1970s . In the 1920s, products from the design-oriented Neues Frankfurt project were manufactured.

In 1932/1934 WMF was involved in the development of the deep-drawn housing made of stainless V2A steel for the Robot series camera .

In February 1944, the Geislingen / Steige subcamp of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp was set up for the company , as a separate part of the existing foreign labor camp for forced labor in Heidenheimer Strasse with an area of ​​10,000 square meters. The first prisoners for the concentration camp, around 700 Jewish women, arrived on July 28th and had to do forced labor for WMF from August 16th . At least twelve died in the concentration camp for reasons that cannot be precisely determined. Sick, seriously injured or pregnant women were transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp , and after its dissolution also to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . In March 1945, tried Supervisory Board and Board of WMF to dissolution of the camp before the US troops reached the area. From the end of this month the prisoners no longer worked for the WMF; In April 1945 the inmates were "evacuated" to the Dachau concentration camp . In March 1944, WMF expanded its barracks on Heidenheimer Strasse a second time in order to be able to accommodate an additional 400 “Eastern workers”, a third time in November. Hunger and disease were the norm. The reported graves of 24 Poles and 41 Russians cannot be found.

In 1950 the company employed 3,000 people again; In the mid-1960s there were 6,000 employees. In the 1950s and 1960s, WMF earned a reputation in private households as a producer of beautiful and durable household goods that continues to this day thanks to the simple, functional designs by the Bauhaus student and product designer Wilhelm Wagenfeld .

The production of high-quality coffee machines for the catering sector has been a successful business area since the early 1960s. At the beginning of 2006, the company took over the Swiss coffee machine manufacturer M. Schaerer AG, thereby expanding its market position in this area.

In 1980, the Siegle family's WMF shares were bought by Rheinmetall Berlin AG for reasons of diversification . However, due to cartel allegations , WMF was assigned to Wiesbaden investor Wolfgang Schuppli and his Helvetic group in 1985 for 60 million marks . Schuppli is credited with successfully restructuring the WMF brand, which was somewhat outdated under the leadership of Rheinmetall, within a few years - including by replacing the Executive Board , expanding the brand subsidiaries (see section Brands in the Group ) and working with international industrial designers. Another major shareholder through the acquisition of Siegle shares was Deutsche Bank . In 1994 Schuppli sold further parts of his WMF shares to Deutsche Bank, Munich Re and Württembergische Versicherung . The four major shareholders were linked through a pool agreement .

21st century

WMF branch with new shop concept (2015)

In April 2006, the Austrian Fiba Group took a 20% stake in WMF through the acquisition of Schuppli shares and increased its stake in September 2006 to almost 37%. The Helvetic Group reduced its participation to just under 16%.

In mid-2006, the Swiss investment company Capvis, through its subsidiary Crystal Capital, acquired from the previous shareholders (Deutsche Bank, Münchener Rück / Larus and Württembergische Lebensversicherung, all with approx. 17% of the shares each) for 92 million euros surprisingly 52% of the ordinary shares and thus approx 35% of the total shares in WMF.

Until the beginning of 2012, the voting rights of Crystal Capital were 52% and of FIBA ​​37%. In July 2012, the US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) took over the shares of Crystal Capital / Capvis for more than 238 million euros. Through the further acquisition u. a. From a 12% stake in Fiba, the stake in ordinary shares increased to 71.6% (49.7% of total capital). In the course of this, it became known that WMF board members and supervisory board members held a total of almost 15% in Capvis, which, according to Fiba owner Andreas Weißenbacher, should have been decisive for the sale to Capvis in 2006.

Since July 2010, raw cutlery has been obtained from the factory in Heshan , China, which was founded around ten years earlier . In the spring of 2013, the group sold the Princess and Petra brands of the small electrical appliances division in order to focus on the premium segment with the WMF brand.

In August 2013, Peter Feld replaced Thorsten Klapproth as CEO, who had held this position for ten years. Feld announced in April 2014 that around 400 jobs in the group were to be cut and around 50 branches were to be closed. The export share should be increased from 46% to around 80% and thus contribute to the expansion. WMF's sales as of September 30, 2014 totaled 718.4 million euros. In March 2015, WMF was taken off the stock exchange and the listing of ordinary and preference shares was discontinued; the company was converted into a GmbH shortly afterwards.

In May 2016, the French Groupe SEB acquired WMF from KKR for more than 1.5 billion euros.

In January 2019, the WMF's historical goods archive, comprising around 11,000 individual items, was entered in the monument book by the State Monuments Office .

On July 11, 2019, SEB announced its intention to discontinue the manufacture of stainless steel cookware in Geislingen by the end of 2020 and to cut 400 jobs.

Brands and range

The WMF Group is divided into three business areas: global coffee machine business (turnover: 348.8 million euros), global hotel business (turnover: 78.6 million euros) and global consumer business with table & kitchen, branches and small electrical appliances (turnover: 594 .0 million euros). Sales as of December 31, 2014. The various WMF brands are offered in these segments to a different extent.

The main brand WMF is represented in all three areas. Silit , a manufacturer of cooking pots, has been a subsidiary of WMF since the brand was founded in 1920, with Silit being managed as an independent brand in the branches and in the table and kitchen area and thus also in retail. The Kaiser Backformen brand is also assigned to the group of companies. The Alfi brand ( vacuum jugs ) was sold to the US company Thermos in 2014 .

Since July 2015, all WMF branches have gradually been redesigned, the new PoS concept shows a joint appearance of the brands WMF, Silit and Kaiser baking molds, which are presented in the various subject areas of preparing, cooking, eating, drinking and baking. In addition, the home line with purchased goods from Asian production has been offered at lower prices in WMF branches since the early 2000s .

In 2008 the company Petra-Electric in Burgau was acquired, which manufactures small electrical appliances and, with the brands WMF, nova and Princess, held the small electrical appliances division . In May 2013, the group announced that the small electrical appliances division had sold the Princess and Petra brands . The hotel division includes the brands WMF and Hepp . The company M. Schaerer AG in Switzerland, which converts around 93 million euros with coffee machines, is in the field of coffee machines also a 100% subsidiary of WMF AG. There is also a 24.9% stake in BHS tabletop AG , which brings together high-quality porcelain brands such as Bauscher , Tafelstern professional porcelain and Schönwald under one roof.

One of WMF's best-known brands has been Cromargan since 1927 or, in its further development, Cromargan protect , a rust-free, acid-resistant stainless steel with 18% chrome and 10% nickel . This new stainless steel was developed by Krupp in 1912 . The name is a combination of "Crom" (because of the particularly high chromium content) and "Argan" (because the steel looks similar to silver (Latin: Argentum)). Chromium makes the material rustproof, nickel makes it acid-proof and gives it a shine. Cromargan is mainly used for cutlery and kitchen utensils.

Less well known is Ikora , a surface refinement developed by WMF in the 1920s for metal and glass objects, which established the reputation of WMF products as art and craft objects.

  • Model 2500 cutlery, designed by Kurt Mayer in 1930

  • Paris cutlery , 1950s

  • Stockholm cutlery , Kurt Mayer 1950s

  • Egg cup (around 1920/30)

  • Jacket potato cutlery

  • Tux fork

  • Electroplating - mostly angels or mourners for cemeteries

  • Salt & pepper shakers Max and Moritz , design: Wilhelm Wagenfeld

  • Pressure cooker 4.5 liters Perfect Ultra with removable timer

  • The WMF nut jug was produced in three different sizes.

  • The smallest coffee pod machine in the world: the WMF 1

  • WMF logo

Branch network

Drawing of the WMF building in Berlin in 1888
Left corner building: WMF (inscription above the portal) and other companies

Berlin

In the 19th century, the company had a branch built in Berlin city center, on the corner of Leipziger Strasse and Friedrichstrasse , in which metal products from Geislingen were stored and sold. After the display is also maintained here own glass production and refinery, and there were employed 1200 people. The building was likely destroyed in World War II.

At another location, at the corner of Leipziger Strasse and Mauerstrasse, WMF used the ground floor of a new commercial building built in 1904/1905 according to plans by the architects Eisenlohr & Weigle . It has survived all the events of the 20th century and is now a listed building .

Other cities

In the course of the 20th century, numerous other branches were opened in other major German cities such as Hanover, Cologne and Potsdam. In the 21st century there are a total of 200 company-owned branches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the company is represented at over 40 locations worldwide.

Former listing and re-establishment

From 1887 to 2015 the company was listed on the stock exchange ; The delisting took place in March 2015 . The old, previously listed WMF AG was merged with the majority owner Finedining Capital AG (a subsidiary of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. ) based in Munich as the acquiring company, which then renamed itself WMF AG. This was followed by the conversion to a GmbH, the renaming to the WMF Group GmbH and the relocation of the headquarters to Geislingen an der Steige. The old WMF AG, which had existed since 1880, was thus extinguished.

The share capital of the WMF Group was divided into 9,333,400 ordinary shares and 4,666,600 preference shares.

Movies

  • Silverware, tradition and tears. WMF in Geislingen is renovating. Documentary, Germany, 2014, 29:30 min., Script and direction: Hanspeter Michel, production: SWR , series: made in Südwest, first broadcast: September 10, 2014 on SWR, summary on Das Erste .
  • On a knife edge. WMF and its rescuers. Documentary film, Germany, 2010, 43:30 min., Script and director: Christian Gropper, production: Gropperfilm, Hessischer Rundfunk , first broadcast: June 2, 2010 on ARD , summary on Das Erste.
  • Money makes the world go round. Documentary, Germany, 2014, 43:35 min., Script and direction: Tilman Achtnich, Hanspeter Michel, production: ARD , series: Die Story, first broadcast: January 13, 2014 on ARD, youtube.com

literature

  • Dagmar Altgeld-Peters: The Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF), cutlery and hollow ware made of metal between 1945 and 1975. 2 volumes, Lit, Münster / Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-8258-4016-6 (also dissertation at the University of Bonn 1993).
  • Carlo Burschel, Heinz Scheiffele, Dirk Allgaier; Joan Clough (translator): WMF Ikora & WMF Myra glasses, unique and serial art glass from the 1920s to 1950s / WMF Ikora and Myra Glass. Arnold, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-89790-189-7 (= serial arts and crafts and design in the 20th century , volume 1, German and English).
  • Carlo Burschel, Heinz Scheiffele: WMF Ikora Metall from the 1920s to 1960s . Arnold, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 978-3-89790-191-9 .
  • Annette Denhardt: The metal goods design of the Württemberg metal goods factory between 1900 and 1930. Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco. Lit, Münster / Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89473-277-6 .
  • Graham Dry (Ed.): Art Nouveau. Domestic Metalwork from Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik. The English Catalog 1906 with Introduction by Graham Dry. Woodbridge / Suffolk 1988.
  • Hartmut Gruber: The galvanoplastic art establishment of the WMF 1890-1953. History, facilities and production processes. In: Hohenstaufen / Helfenstein, Historical Yearbook for the Göppingen District, Volume 9, 1999.
  • Ulrich Haller: Forced labor and arms production in Geislingen an der Steige 1939–1945. In: Journal of Württemberg State History. (ZWLG) 57, 1998, pp. 305-368.
  • Volker Hecht: The Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, Geislingen / Steige 1853–1945, business policy and corporate development. Scripta-Mercaturae-Verlag, St. Katharinen 1995, ISBN 3-89590-008-7 . (At the same time: Hohenheim, University, dissertation 1994).
  • WMF glass, ceramic, metal, 1925–1950. Attempts at artistic design. Kunstgewerbemuseum, State Museums of Prussian Cultural Heritage, Berlin 1980.
  • Heinz Scheiffele (ed.): Wilhelm Wagenfeld and WMF, 25 years of collaboration 1950–1975, Heinz and Beate Scheiffele Collection. Geislingen 2003, ISBN 3-00-012723-2 .
  • Jürgen Vogler and Severin Roeseling: 150 years of WMF 1853–2003 , Geislingen 2003. Online version Part 1 to Part 8 .
  • Walter Ziegler : Daniel Straub and the beginnings of MAG and WMF. Corrections and additions to his view of life. In: Hohenstaufen / Helfenstein, Historical Yearbook for the Göppingen District , Volume 1, Weißenborn.

Web links

Commons : Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Commercial register at the local court in Ulm under the number HRB 732 253
  2. ↑ Imprint. Accessed March 31, 2020 .
  3. ^ Zac Cadwalader: Wilbur Curtis Company Acquired By French Groupe SEB. In: Sprudge. Retrieved March 27, 2020 (American English).
  4. ^ WMF - the oldest stock corporation in Baden-Württemberg . boersen-zeitung.de, February 26, 2011.
  5. ↑ When there was fish in the fish hall . swp.de, May 26, 2012.
  6. ↑ RoBoT history. robot-camera.de, September 9, 2017, accessed March 10, 2018.
  7. ↑ A small documentation on the history of forced labor and the Geislingen an der Steige subcamp . Published by the Geislingen City Archives on the occasion of the Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2001.
  8. ^ Offensive into civilian action . In: Die Zeit , No. 25/1992.
  9. ↑ Golden Hand . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1988 ( online ).
  10. ↑ Each word agreed . wiwo.de, June 14, 2005.
  11. ↑ Andreas Weißenbacher comes out for the first time as a major WMF shareholder . ( Memento of March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )wirtschaftsblatt.at, August 27, 2008
  12. ↑ Swiss financial investor takes over WMF . handelsblatt.com, June 7, 2006.
  13. ↑ Trade agreement with Capvis - KKR wants to buy WMF . teleboerse.de, July 6, 2012.
  14. ↑ Deutsche Bank silver-plated WMF . manager-magazin.de, June 7, 2006.
  15. ↑ WMF informs: Majority shareholder Crystal Capital is examining put options . WMF press release, March 28, 2012, press portal, accessed on April 17, 2017.
  16. ↑ A traditional Swabian company: US investor KKR buys iconic kitchen WMF . focus.de, July 6, 2012.
  17. ↑ Fiba has sold part of its WMF shares to KKR. Geislinger Zeitung, November 16, 2012, accessed on May 22, 2014.
  18. ↑ Capvis confirms strong involvement of the WMF bosses. Stuttgarter-Zeitung.de, July 17, 2012, accessed on July 28, 2012.
  19. ↑ The criticism of the WMF board of directors is expanding . Stuttgarter-Zeitung.de, July 24, 2012, accessed on August 8, 2012.
  20. ↑ swp.de ( Memento from February 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ a b WMF concentrates on its own core brand for small electrical appliances . Press release of the wmf group, May 17, 2013, accessed on June 20, 2013.
  22. ↑ Change of management board at WMF WMF Group, press release of April 17, 2013, accessed on May 22, 2014.
  23. ↑ WMF needs a diet before expansion. The new WMF boss Peter Feld wants to expand and make the kitchen appliance manufacturer leaner. Wirtschaftswoche, accessed on April 13, 2014
  24. ↑ a b WMF - data and facts , accessed on February 9, 2014.
  25. ↑ The French group SEB wants to take over the kitchen appliance manufacturer WMF . finanzen.net, May 24, 2016.
  26. ↑ A salt shaker becomes a cultural monument. Spiegel Online, January 29, 2019.
  27. ↑ Geislingen an der Steige: No more WMF saucepans at the traditional place. In: stuttgarter-zeitung.de . July 11, 2019, accessed July 20, 2019 .
  28. ↑ WMF sells subsidiary brand Alfi to Thermos Press release WMF, November 13, 2014, accessed on November 15, 2014.
  29. ↑ Information on the “Cromargan” trademark  in the register of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
  30. ↑ Information on the "Cromargan protect" brand  in the register of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
  31. ^ Jürgen Vogler: 150 years of WMF: 1853–2003 . WMF Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, 2003, p. 86.
  32. ↑ Business Ads . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1888, after Part 1, p. 70. “Württembergische Metallwaaren-Fabrik Geislingen a. St., factory warehouse, Berlin W, Friedrich-Strasse 193a ”.
  33. ↑ WMF commercial building monument, Leipziger Strasse 112, 1904–05 by Eisenlohr & Weigle
  34. ↑ Kitchen specialist says goodbye to the stock market. In: Handelsblatt . March 23, 2015, accessed March 25, 2015 .
  35. ↑ Founded in 1880 according to HRB 540215, AG Ulm
  36. ^ EQS Group AG, Munich, Germany: Squeeze-out of minority shareholders of WMF AG and merger of WMF AG into Finedining Capital AG effective. In: www.dgap.de. Retrieved March 25, 2016 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 37 '12.2 "  N , 9 ° 50' 3.4"  E