Wertkauf was a German

retail 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 ...

group that had 21 markets until its takeover by the US supermarket chain

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

in 1997. The group's head office was in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

History

The first branch opened in 1958 in Karlsruhe. In 1966, a value purchase center with 3,500 m² was opened in

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

. The new Karlsruhe shopping center built during was destroyed on 26 August 1969 during one of the worst major fires in the history of the city. After that it was rebuilt in the same place and slightly expanded. Eight years later, the second sales office in Freiburg was opened, covering an area of 6,000 square metres. In 1968, the company built the largest European

self-service Self-service is the practice of serving oneself, usually when making purchases. Aside from Automated Teller Machines, which are not limited to banks, and customer-operated supermarket check-out, labor-saving of which has been described as self- ...

department store in Munich Euro-Industriepark with an area of 13,500 m². High shelves were used for storage, and the goods were handled by forklift."How man makes millions"
''Time'', July 23, 1971 The chain has generated annual sales of up to 1.5 billion euros with approximately 6,000 employees. The owners were Hugo Mann, and his wife Rosmarie, née Porst, who had also founded the furniture chain Mann Mobilia, from which value was later developed and then split off. In 1997, Wertkauf was sold to the American retail chain

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

. After an economic failure, the entire German branch of Walmart was sold to the

Metro Group Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership only cash and carry stores primarily under the Metro brand. Until 2020 it was also active in general retail business through Real division, wh ...

in 2006.

References

{{authority control Retail companies of Germany German companies established in 1958 German companies disestablished in 1997 1997 mergers and acquisitions Walmart