Gebr. Heinemann SE & Co. KG is a

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

-based distributor and

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

in the international travel market.

History

Gebr. Heinemann was founded in

Hamburg, Germany (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, on November 1, 1879, by Heinrich Christian Carl Heinemann and his brother Carl Friedrich Eduard Heinemann.Michael Scheppe: ''Max Heinemann und Raoul Spanger: Profiteure im Reisechaos.'' In: ''

Handelsblatt The ''Handelsblatt'' (literally "commerce paper" in English) is a German-language business newspaper published in Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Du ...

'', issue 134/2022, p. 44., 14 July 2022., retrieved 9 January 2023. The brothers began with duty- and tax-free wholesale trade in

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

products and

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard ...

. The focus was on supplying

ship chandler A ship chandler is a retail dealer who specializes in providing supplies or equipment for ships. Synopsis For traditional sailing ships, items that could be found in a chandlery include sail-cloth, rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch, linseed oil, ...

s and

shipping companies The following articles list companies that operate ships: * List of freight ship companies for companies that own and operate the freight ships (Bulk Carriers, Container Ships, Roll-on/Roll-off (for Freights), Tankers and Gas Carriers). ** List o ...

.Timo Kotowski: ''Ohne Flug kaum Kunden''. In: '' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,'' No. 98, p. 18. 28 April 2021, retrieved 09 January 2023.Hanna-Lotte Mikuteit: ''Der neue Chef von 330 Duty-free-Shops''. In: '' Hamburger Abendblatt'', p. 5., 7 September 2019, retrieved 9 January 2023. The company was based in Hamburg's Speicherstadt warehouse district.Lukas Bay: ''Hanseatische Geschäfte''. In: ''Handelsblatt'', No. 42, p. 22. 2 March 2015, retrieved 9 January 2023. In 1910, a major fire destroyed all the goods stored in the port. In 1903, Heinrich Heinemann's son Otto joined the company as a partner;
An official report on Gebr. Heinemann for the aviation community
'' Airports Council International, 2014, retrieved 1 September 2022. Otto's brother Richard also joined the company in 1911. Due to the latter's untimely death, Otto Heinemann's son Helmut succeeded to the partnership in 1937. In 1943, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the company experienced a major fire in the warehouse, in which the warehouse at Sandtorkai was completely destroyed. From the 1950s, Gebr. Heinemann also supplied the new duty-free shops on ferries to

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

with tobacco and confectionery products as well as liquor. In 1953 and 1954, the first airline customers followed (

Icelandic Airlines Loftleiðir HF, internationally known as Icelandic Airlines (abbreviated IAL) or Loftleiðir Icelandic, was a private Icelandic airline headquartered on the grounds of Reykjavík Airport in Reykjavík, which operated mostly trans-atlantic fligh ...

and

Deutsche Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

). Because of the new field of air travel, perfume and cosmetics were added to the range, followed later by fashion and accessories, confectionery and gift items. The first duty-free shop was opened at

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...

in 1958. This was operated by the state, supplied by Gebr. Heinemann. On February 16, 1962, large stocks in Hamburg became victims of the storm surge.Cornelis Rattmann: ''Der neue Erfolgskurs der Gebr. Heinemann. Nicht zollfrei, dafür günstig''. In: '' Welt am Sonntag'', No. 36., 8 September 2002, retrieved 9 January 2023. The company received its first retail concession for duty-free at an airport in 1969 for

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

/Bonn. Other shops soon followed.Hanna-Lotte Mikuteit: ''Der neue Chef von 330 Duty-free-Shops''. In: ''Hamburger Abendblatt,'' p. 5., 7 September 2019, retrieved 9 January 2023. In 1978, the warehouse moved to Magdeburger Strasse (now Koreastrasse). In 1979, Gunnar and Claus Heinemann replaced their fathers and continued the family business in the fourth generation. Since 1986, the company headquarters have been located at Kaispeicher B in HafenCity. When the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

abolished duty- and tax-free purchasing for travel within the EU on July 1, 1999, the company expanded its market share in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. In 2003, a logistics center was built and put into operation in Hamburg-Allermöhe. The warehouse building in the Speicherstadt was converted into the company's headquarters.Frank Binder: ''Traditionsfirma Gebr. Heinemann stärkt Standort mit neuem Logistikzentrum in Allermöhe''. In: ''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...

'', No. 261, p. 37. 8 November 2003, retrieved 9 January 2023. In 2009, the subsidiary ''Heinemann Asia Pacific'' was founded with headquarters in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. On January 1, 2012, the company changed its legal form from a KG to an SE & Co. KG. In 2013, Gebr. Heinemann founded the subsidiary ''Heinemann Americas'', based in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

.Lukas Bay: '''Die Russen fehlen uns. In: ''Handelsblatt online''. 2 March 2015, retrieved 9 January 2023. In 2014, the second logistics center was opened in

Erlensee Erlensee is a town in the Main-Kinzig district, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated on the river Kinzig, 5 km northeast of Hanau. It was formed in 1970 by the merger, in 1970, of the towns of Langendiebach and Rückingen. The name deduces fro ...

. In 2018, Max Heinemann became the company's fifth-generation CEO. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 and the accompanying lockdowns, significantly fewer people traveled than before, resulting in less merchandise being purchased in airport shops. As a result, the company suffered the two worst years in its history. In 2020, it generated only 33% of the previous year's sales. Since 2022, the travel retail business has been recovering; due to long waiting times at the airports of the still not fully recovered travel business, airport passengers bought about 20% more than before the pandemic, which also benefited Gebr. Heinemann.

Corporate structure

Since 2018, the company's managing director has been Max Heinemann. In 2022, he was joined by Raoul Spanger, who has been serving as a managing director since. Managers Dirk Schneider, Florian Seidel, and Kai Deneke serve as members of the executive board. Former managing directors Claus Heinemann and Gunnar Heinemann represent the owning family on the Supervisory Board.Tim Spark: ''Max Heinemann: Drastischer Einbruch''. In: ''Handelsblatt'', No. 163, p. 45., 25 August 2020, retrieved 9 January 2023. The company's 2021 sales revenue was EUR 1.56 billion.Gebr. Heinemann SE: ''Konzernabschluss zum Geschäftsjahr vom 01.01.2021 bis zum 31.12.2021. (Consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.)'' In: ''

Bundesanzeiger The ''Bundesanzeiger'' is an official publication of the Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, ...

''. published 18 January 2023. In 2021, the company employed 6913 people worldwide. Gebr. Heinemann operates as a distributor and retailer in over 90 countries. The company has a total of about 500 of its own shops as a retailer at airports (about 340), cruise ships, and border crossings. In addition, the company supplies airports, airlines, cruise ships, border shops, ship chandlers, diplomatic missions, military shops, and duty-free zones around the world. Gebr. Heinemann and its subsidiaries have shops in

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

(Heinemann Asia Pacifics),

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(Heinemann Americas). The company also operates its own logistics centers in the German cities Hamburg-Allermöhe and in Erlensee.

Products

In the shops operated by Gebr. Heinemann itself, as well as for distribution customers, the company sells branded goods in the fields of cosmetics, alcohol, confectionery, food, tobacco products and fashion. Over half of the income is generated from the sale of alcohol, tobacco and confectionery.

Controversies

Due to collusion with competitor James Richardson over the license to operate duty-free shops at

Ben Gurion Airport Ben Gurion International Airport, ; ar, مطار بن غوريون الدولي , commonly known by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the main international airport of Israel. Situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Lod, it is the ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, the Arbitration Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce ordered the company to pay damages on November 19, 2021. Gebr. Heinemann had applied for the license under the joint venture Alfa, but after secret agreements left the license to James Richardson, for which Gebr. Heinemann was to receive the license for Sydney without competition. Alfa was thus out of the running. A court in Tel Aviv confirmed the award in the summer of 2022.

Award

* 2015: German Retail Award of the German Retail Association

References

External links

*{{official website, https://www.gebr-heinemann.de/en/ Trading companies of Germany Wholesalers of Germany Logistics companies