Effective June 1, 2022, Kamil Christoph Kasprowicz will take the chair of the Executive Board at the newly founded Baur Hermes Fulfilment GmbH in Altenkunstadt. His successor as Group Vice President Supply Chain Management of Otto Group is Raphael Maier, who has been responsible for Supply Chain Strategy & Innovation since 2021.
Alexander Peters, currently Group Vice President Otto Group IT, will become the new Managing Director of the Manufactum Group and lead the company together with Kai Steffan from 01 August 2022. He succeeds Max Heimann, who will leave Manufactum at his own request with effect from 30 June 2022 to take up a new career challenge outside the Otto Group.
Effective May 15, 2022, Heidi Stevens will take over as CEO of Otto International. Heidi Stevens follows Michael Dumke, who will retire on June 30, 2022, after eleven successful years as CEO of the global procurement and services company.
The Otto Group has agreed to sell Collect Artificial Intelligence GmbH to Aareal Bank Group. A corresponding contract has been signed by both parties, who have mutually agreed not to disclose the purchase price. All current CollectAI employees will be retained under the new ownership.
Otto Group, the international retail and services group, has acquired a majority stake in the Swiss company Medgate Holding, a provider of digital health services that include medical teleconsulting. At the same time, Medgate Holding has acquired BetterDoc GmbH, a data analysis service active in the DACH region that helps patients identify the most suitable doctors and clinics for their condition. The founders of Medgate and BetterDoc will continue to hold a minority stake in Medgate Holding and a corresponding contractual agreement has been signed by the parties. The Otto Group is thus pursuing the targeted expansion of its digital services towards digital health. The contractual parties have mutually agreed not to disclose the acquisition price.
The Otto Group's logistics network in the fulfilment sector is taking shape in terms of its personnel. The managing director of Baur Hermes Fulfilment GmbH & KG (today: Baur Hermes Fulfilment Vorrats-Verwaltungs GmbH & Co KG), the new joint venture between Hermes Fulfilment and the Baur Group in the southern German town of Altenkunstadt, in Upper Franconia, will be the chairman of the Management Board of the Baur subsidiary Baur Fulfilment Solutions (BFS), Andreas du Plessis, who will now hold both positions. Also effective 1 March 1 2022, Baur Managing Director Olaf Röhr will leave the company to take overall charge of all IT for the Hermes Fulfilment Group.
Online retail remains a reliable growth driver for the international retail and services group. According to initial forecasts the Otto Group will close its 2021/22 financial year ending 28 February 2022 with online sales revenues of almost 11 billion euros, compared with 9.9 billion euros in the previous financial year. Germany is expected to account for almost 7.6 billion euros of this, compared to 7 billion euros in the same period of the previous year.
The Chair of the Executive Board of EOS Holding GmbH, Klaus Engberding, will be leaving the international financial service provider on January 31, 2022, for personal reasons. Managing Director Marwin Ramcke, who is currently in charge of the region Eastern Europe, will become Chair of the Executive Board, effective February 1, 2022. This change also means that Carsten Tidow will take over the Eastern European business as of February 2022.
The international retail and services Group is modernizing and expanding the logistics infrastructure at the traditional Upper Franconian location of the Baur Group. This is the result of a joint shareholders’ decision between the Otto Group and the Friedrich Baur Foundation. The plan for the coming years is to invest around 150 million euros on the expansion and the technological development of the Group location in Altenkunstadt as well as to secure job opportunities in the region and in Germany for the long term.
With effect from 01 March 2022, Katrin Behrens will join the top management of the Mytoys Group alongside CEO Martin Schierer and CFO Tobias Nieber. As part of the future management trio, she will assume responsibility as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Technology Division. Katrin Behrens will move from Bonprix, where she is currently Vice President IT and Controlling.
Scayle ("Scayle - Your Commerce Engine") is the new B2B brand of About You Holding SE. It enables brands and retailers to scale their commerce business with a Commerce Engine that consists of three components: commerce technology, online marketing, and commerce operations.
The most inspiring and personal fashion online shop in Europe ABOUT YOU continues its successful expansion and launched its new online shop aboutyou.pt on October 26th, 2021. In the past, ABOUT YOU proved its approach of a special shopping experience within several country launches in Europe and is currently active in 25 European markets. The fashion online shop in Portugal was officially launched with a huge marketing campaign and spectacular launch event in Lisbon with over 400 social media stars, celebrities, industry experts and journalists. Among the guests were the most influential Portuguese personalities such as actress Sofia Ribeiro, actress and model Rita Pereira, TV host Carina Caldeira, actress and singer Ines Herédia, actress Kelly Bailey, actress Lourenco Ortigao, singer Barbara Bandeira and many other Portuguese stars.
As the detailed exploratory talks on the formation of the new German government begin, a broad alliance of German businesses from all key sectors of the economy is calling for an ambitious, cross-sector climate policy fit for the purpose of reaching the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The international retail and services group can look back on a successful first six months of the current financial year 2021/22 (to 28 February). The positive revenue development is due in particular to sustained growth in online retail and a revival in brick-and-mortar business.
The Otto Group is to sell Shopping 24 Gesellschaft für multimediale Anwendungen mbH to YK Group GmbH. Both parties have signed a corresponding contract. The new owner will take over all Shopping24 employees and Dennis Kallerhoff will remain as CEO.
With effect from October 01, 2021, Bianca Lammers is to take over at the lead of the Otto Group Kulturwandel 4.0 team. She succeeds Tobias Krüger, who leaves the Group to take up a new career challenge
adSoul GmbH, provider of automated search engine marketing and former Otto Group Digital Solutions (OGDS) portfolio company, has been acquired by phinx Ventures GmbH with effect from 01 September 2021.
Great success for the occupational health & safety of workers in Bangladesh and worldwide: After intensive negotiations, global trade unions and several international companies have agreed on a new agreement (International Accord) for health and safety in the global textile and apparel industry. As an active partner in this process, the Otto Group has signed the new International Accord.
Despite all the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hamburg-based EOS Group successfully concluded its 2020/21 financial year (ending on 28 February). With a slight decline in revenue of 7.1 percent to EUR 792.5 million, the financial investor and technology-driven debt collection service provider reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of EUR 312.4 million (previous year: EUR 343.4 million).
Viviane Reichert-Brown will join the Management Board of Hermes Einrichtungs Service with effect from 01 July 2021. Teaming up with the long-standing Managing Directors Carsten Meinders and Michael Dildey, she will be responsible for the key topics of innovation, internationalization and strategic personnel development.
Effective June 1, 2022, Kamil Christoph Kasprowicz will take the chair of the Executive Board at the newly founded Baur Hermes Fulfilment GmbH in Altenkunstadt. His successor as Group Vice President Supply Chain Management of Otto Group is Raphael Maier, who has been responsible for Supply Chain Strategy & Innovation since 2021.
Alexander Peters, currently Group Vice President Otto Group IT, will become the new Managing Director of the Manufactum Group and lead the company together with Kai Steffan from 01 August 2022. He succeeds Max Heimann, who will leave Manufactum at his own request with effect from 30 June 2022 to take up a new career challenge outside the Otto Group.
Effective May 15, 2022, Heidi Stevens will take over as CEO of Otto International. Heidi Stevens follows Michael Dumke, who will retire on June 30, 2022, after eleven successful years as CEO of the global procurement and services company.
Otto Group, the international retail and services group, has acquired a majority stake in the Swiss company Medgate Holding, a provider of digital health services that include medical teleconsulting. At the same time, Medgate Holding has acquired BetterDoc GmbH, a data analysis service active in the DACH region that helps patients identify the most suitable doctors and clinics for their condition. The founders of Medgate and BetterDoc will continue to hold a minority stake in Medgate Holding and a corresponding contractual agreement has been signed by the parties. The Otto Group is thus pursuing the targeted expansion of its digital services towards digital health. The contractual parties have mutually agreed not to disclose the acquisition price.
The Otto Group's logistics network in the fulfilment sector is taking shape in terms of its personnel. The managing director of Baur Hermes Fulfilment GmbH & KG (today: Baur Hermes Fulfilment Vorrats-Verwaltungs GmbH & Co KG), the new joint venture between Hermes Fulfilment and the Baur Group in the southern German town of Altenkunstadt, in Upper Franconia, will be the chairman of the Management Board of the Baur subsidiary Baur Fulfilment Solutions (BFS), Andreas du Plessis, who will now hold both positions. Also effective 1 March 1 2022, Baur Managing Director Olaf Röhr will leave the company to take overall charge of all IT for the Hermes Fulfilment Group.
Online retail remains a reliable growth driver for the international retail and services group. According to initial forecasts the Otto Group will close its 2021/22 financial year ending 28 February 2022 with online sales revenues of almost 11 billion euros, compared with 9.9 billion euros in the previous financial year. Germany is expected to account for almost 7.6 billion euros of this, compared to 7 billion euros in the same period of the previous year.
The international retail and services Group is modernizing and expanding the logistics infrastructure at the traditional Upper Franconian location of the Baur Group. This is the result of a joint shareholders’ decision between the Otto Group and the Friedrich Baur Foundation. The plan for the coming years is to invest around 150 million euros on the expansion and the technological development of the Group location in Altenkunstadt as well as to secure job opportunities in the region and in Germany for the long term.
With effect from 01 March 2022, Katrin Behrens will join the top management of the Mytoys Group alongside CEO Martin Schierer and CFO Tobias Nieber. As part of the future management trio, she will assume responsibility as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Technology Division. Katrin Behrens will move from Bonprix, where she is currently Vice President IT and Controlling.
As the detailed exploratory talks on the formation of the new German government begin, a broad alliance of German businesses from all key sectors of the economy is calling for an ambitious, cross-sector climate policy fit for the purpose of reaching the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The international retail and services group can look back on a successful first six months of the current financial year 2021/22 (to 28 February). The positive revenue development is due in particular to sustained growth in online retail and a revival in brick-and-mortar business.
The Otto Group is to sell Shopping 24 Gesellschaft für multimediale Anwendungen mbH to YK Group GmbH. Both parties have signed a corresponding contract. The new owner will take over all Shopping24 employees and Dennis Kallerhoff will remain as CEO.
With effect from October 01, 2021, Bianca Lammers is to take over at the lead of the Otto Group Kulturwandel 4.0 team. She succeeds Tobias Krüger, who leaves the Group to take up a new career challenge
Great success for the occupational health & safety of workers in Bangladesh and worldwide: After intensive negotiations, global trade unions and several international companies have agreed on a new agreement (International Accord) for health and safety in the global textile and apparel industry. As an active partner in this process, the Otto Group has signed the new International Accord.
Viviane Reichert-Brown will join the Management Board of Hermes Einrichtungs Service with effect from 01 July 2021. Teaming up with the long-standing Managing Directors Carsten Meinders and Michael Dildey, she will be responsible for the key topics of innovation, internationalization and strategic personnel development.
Stephan Elsner is to become CEO of the Baur Group from 01 November 2021. The current Bonprix Italy Chairman of the Management Board will succeed Patrick Boos, who will become the new Witt Group Chairman of the Management Board as of 01 January 2022.
Not a classic corporate publishing product, but not a purely journalistic product either. In collaboration with GEO, a family of monthly geographic magazines, the Otto Group is publishing its own sustainability magazine "NOW". On 108 pages, the magazine, with a circulation of 100,000 copies in German and English, highlights the sustainability activities of the Otto Group and its foundations. The publication is aimed at decision-makers and multipliers from the media, politics and society as well as Otto Group employees worldwide.
Despite the enormous challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Otto Group wrapped up the past financial year 2020/21 (to 28 February) with outstanding success. The Group was able to increase its global revenue on a comparable basis by 17.2 percent to 15.6 billion euros.
A few weeks ago, the Otto Group announced that it would offer all colleagues in Germany voluntary and free Corona vaccination. The planning and set-up work for putting nearly twenty plant vaccination centres nationwide into operation, including one at the Group Campus in Hamburg, has now been completed.
Roy Smolders is to become Chief Operating Officer of Hermes Fulfilment GmbH, Hamburg, as of 01 July 2021. He succeeds Kevin Kuf, company CEO since the beginning of April this year.
Wolfgang Jess is to retire and will step down as CEO of the Witt Group with effect from 31 December 2021. Patrick Boos, currently CEO of the Baur Group, also an Otto Group company, will become the new Chairman of the Executive Board of this Otto Group focus company from 01 January 2022. His successor as Baur Group CEO will be announced at a later date.
Otto Group is committed to find job opportunities for ODC colleagues within the Group
> New highs in revenue and EBITDA > Strong investment in debt purchases: another step towards becoming a global financial investor > “We will greatly expand our real estate-secured business, besides unsecured debt purchasing.”
Europe in the mood to spend. In June, the GfK Consumer Climate for the 28 EU member states reached 23.2 points, its highest level since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007. Europeans are getting tired of saving and are spending more on consumption. Greater liquidity also means that companies are likely to benefit from improved payment practices.
Berlin-based operational VC Project A today announces its agreement with London-based private equity group 3i to invest in Lampenwelt, Europe's leading online retailer for lighting fixtures.
EOS Consolidated, which is headquartered in Hamburg, recorded a successful performance in fiscal 2015/16. Its EBT of EUR 181.4 million was well above the previous year’s result. The international debt collection company was also able to increase its sales to EUR 596.1 million.
On 1 July 2016, the international EOS Group acquired 100% of the shares in debt collection service provider Contentia in France and Belgium. The EOS Group already has a successful debt collection company in each of the two countries.
Following a private sale process, the 3SI Group today signed an agreement to sell its multichannel stock-clearance business, Cogemag-Excédence, to Artmadis, BtoB distributors and France’s leading tableware and cookware company.
Klaus Engberding, responsible for the region Germany on the EOS Group Board of Directors, will take over the CEO position of the international leading provider of receivables management effective 1 March 2017. Hans-Werner Scherer, the current long-time and extremely successful CEO, is leaving the Group of his own volition in order to retire.
Cologne-based start-up Homeday announced the successful closing of their Series A financing round today. In May this year, the renowned venture capital companies Project A and Paua Ventures committed among others to investing a seven-figure amount in the rapidly growing company, which is active in the field of property technology (called “PropTech”) and has chosen to specialize in particular in the data-driven pairing of real estate agents with appropriate customers.
With Bonprix CEO Dr Marcus Ackermann’s move to the Otto Group Executive Board as of 01 January 2017, the international fashion company will have a reshaped executive management team. Bonprix’s own Markus Fuchshofen and OTTO’s Dr Richard Gottwald will join the current Executive Directors Rien Jansen and Dr Kai Heck on the Bonprix Executive Board.
Early stage investor and operational VC Project A has announced an investment of 4 million euros in Lost My Name, one of the leading creators of personalized children’s content. With this extension of the Series A round, Project A joins the circle of renowned international investors, including lead investor Google Ventures, Greycroft and Allen & Co. Project A’s founding partner Florian Heinemann will also join the company’s board. Lost My Name’s first personalized children’s book “The Little Boy/Girl Who Lost His/Her Name” was one of the bestselling children’s book globally in 2015. With their second book, “The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home”, they are well on their way to repeat this success.
Further to the approval of the French Competition Authority, 3SI Group has signed, on 30 May, the acquisition of Girard-Agediss, the French leader in the delivery of bulky items and furniture to professional customers, private individuals and internet users. Further to an open transfer process, 3SI Group has signed, on 31 May, the sale of Becquet to Domoti, a well-known distance seller headquartered in Marquette-lez-Lille.
Today, e.ventures is announcing the closing of a new $150 million early stage fund to target Europe’s best businesses and entrepreneurs, bringing e.ventures’ total assets under management today to more than $1 billion. This new fund, focused on seed and Series A rounds, will be deployed alongside an already active $290 million global growth investment vehicle which targets subsequent financing rounds, allowing entrepreneurs to gain the full benefit of e.ventures’ expertise through the full investment lifecycle.
The Hermes Group, continuing years of successful growth, also records impressive figures in the 2015 fiscal year. The trade and logistics services provider based in Hamburg has increased its turnover by 11% to €2,460 million (€2,230 million in 2014). A key contributor to this was the fast-growing international parcel and logistics business, driven by the booming e-commerce.
Digital Health startup launches platform providing global access to high quality medical treatments.
As part of its new strategic course to focus on growing service activities, the 3SI Group has decided to sell all of its retail activities in France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.
BorderGuru, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hermes Group, has become the official contractual partner of China's Alibaba Group. With a gross merchandise value (GMV) of 452 bn USD and access to over 280 million customers, the Alibaba Group is currently the world's leading online retailer. Through its TMall Global shopping platform, Alibaba offers its Chinese customers popular international brands. On behalf of Cainiao, the logistics provider of the Chinese trading giant, BorderGuru GmbH is managing the whole logistics cross-border shipping process for European clients looking to sell on the booming Chinese market.
Order-picking logistics specialist Dispeo has just welcomed a new customer on board: Camaïeu. As part of a partnership due to begin in July 2016, France’s leading female clothing retailer will be availing itself of Dispeo’s services for its e-commerce activities and store flows management.
Jan Kegelberg, who has taken over the newly created position of a Chief Digital Officer at SportScheck in Munich in August, joins the management board of the company on February 1, 2016. In this role, he will be responsible for e-commerce sales, marketing and customer intelligence.
The Mytoys Group, one of Germany's most successful E-Commerce companies, will open its first technology location outside Germany. MYTOYS plans to open a TechLab in Madrid.
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