Retailers were a key component of the economic miracle of the 50s and 60s. Now you are gone – or in the case of the Otto Group landed, the Survivors of this Era in a digital world.
As a Werner-Otto on 17. August founded in 1949 in Hamburg, a shipping trade, he could not have guessed that he laid the Foundation stone of the world group. The largely destitute refugees from the East had just turned 40 years old, freshly divorced, and had to bear in the poor post-war Germany’s responsibility for two small children.
The legendary first catalog with Hand-pasted pictures of 14 pages of 28 Pairs of shoes, and is now in the “house of history” in Bonn. Edition Of 300 Copies.
Against overwhelming competition
In the 50s, the times of the economic miracle in West Germany, a variety of shipping and trading company. Most of them are forgotten today. Otto managed to catch up with a customizable offer, the order and the delivery on account of the industry leaders source and Neckermann.
These two companies and their Patriarch, Gustav Schickedanz, and Josef Neckermann had their business roots in the times of national socialism and in front of it and went with significant advantages compared to Otto at the Start. You’ve been great company, Werner Otto during the war was the owner of a small retail Shoe business.
He founded 70 years ago, the Otto mail-order trade: Werner Otto, who died in 2011 at the age of 102 years.
Expansion and ascent to the billion-dollar enterprise
The Expansion after the Foundation phase went quickly; after ten years, employees of the Otto mail-order company 1000 employees and laid the Foundation stone for a new corporate headquarters in Hamburg-Bramfeld, where the fate of the Otto Group are to be controlled. As a company founder, Werner Otto in the mid-60s due to health reasons, the business management handed over to a non-family Manager, was the shipping trade is a large company with a turnover of more than 500 million D-Mark.
After his retirement, Werner Otto had more than 45 years of life in front of him. He was 102 years old and has founded several real estate and commercial companies.
The breakthrough to world business, Werner Otto’s eldest son, Michael, who led the company from 1981 to around 26 years, and today, the Supervisory Board presides over managed. “Well, I was able to drive, finally, the internationalisation and diversification”, says Michael Otto, in an interview with the “Hamburger Abendblatt” to his appointment to the top management of the group at the age of 38 years.
Otto expanded, first in Europe, later also in the USA, Japan, Russia, and China. In Michael Otto’s term of office, multiplied by the sales increase to approximately 11.5 billion euros, the number of employees rose to more than 50 000.
The signs of the times
The greatest achievement of the Hamburger, it is, to have in the market to survive. Early on, Otto took over smaller competitors, such as Heine or Witt. Other retailers have been applied, for example, Schöpflin source. Neckermann was in the 70s in trouble and landed at Karstadt, as well as many years later the source. The economic miracle was over, the growth rates were smaller.
The famous Otto catalogue in changing times: issues from 1967 (left) and 2005 (right)
The decisive factor, however, the early use of technology. In the 80s experimented Otto with the shopping through the television. “In 1995, when the Internet began its triumphal March, we have moved immediately and also went to the Internet,” says Michael Otto.
A bold decision: at that Time, 250,000 people had just nationwide access to the Internet. But Otto had the right intuition. “Many of the competitors have to late on the Internet, which no longer exist today,” says Michael Otto. Or you belong to Otto, as the source.
From now on, without the famous catalog
The Otto Group is now one of the largest shipping trade groups in the world and in Germany, according to Amazon, the second place. Last autumn, the last of the extensive main catalog was published. It is no longer needed; 97 percent of the customers order over the Internet.
The current Chairman of the Board, Alexander birch conducted a retail and services group with more than 13 billion euros in sales and 52 600 employees. Belongs to the Empire, the financial services provider Eos, as well as the package delivery company, Hermes, is criticized like other messenger services, of trade unions.
The industry has grown with the advent of Online trading enormously – with no deliverer, no shipping trade. Parcel carriers often complain about Stress, pressure and high work load. The Otto group is now the majority of a member of the Otto family Foundation, which is dedicated to charitable purposes. Special celebrations to 70. Anniversary are planned.