Douglas Holding was a German

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

group based in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

which included subsidiaries perfumery chain Douglas GmbH, confectionery chain Hussel, bookstore chain Thalia Buchhandel and women's fashion store chain AppelrathCüpper. After the takeover by financial investor Advent International, Douglas Holding was delisted in 2013 and the conglomerate was gradually split into its individual companies. In June 2015, CVC Capital Partners agreed to purchase the controlling stake in the company from Advent International in a deal which reportedly valued Douglas at around 2.8 billion euros. On 20 March 2017, Douglas Holding AG was dissolved by merging with Douglas GmbH.

History

The roots of the company date back to 1821, when the perfume and soap factory ''J.S. Douglas Söhne'' was founded in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. In 1863, the first ''Christ''

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

was founded. In 1910, the first Douglas perfumery was opened in Hamburg. The actual predecessor of the Douglas Holding AG, the ''Hussel Süßwarenfilialbetrieb GmbH'', was founded in 1949, and transformed into a

joint stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certifi ...

in 1962. In 1969, it acquired the Parfümerie Douglas, which soon became the main pillar of the corporation, which became known as Hussel Holding AG in 1976. In 1989, the company changed its name to Douglas Holding AG. In December 2012, Advent International led a public-to-private buyout of Douglas in a deal worth 1.5 billion euros. The deal was successfully managed by board members Henning Kreke (CEO) and Burkhard Bamberger (CFO). The Kreke family that founded Douglas retained a twenty percent stake in the company. Advent International refocused Douglas on its primary perfume and cosmetics lines, spinning off the company's other brands: Confectioner Hussel was sold to Emeram Capital Partners in March 2014. Jewelry retailer Christ was sold to 3i Group in October 2014. Womanswear retailer AppelrathCüpper was sold to

OpCapita OpCapita is a British private equity firm specialising in the retail, consumer and leisure industries. The firm invests in underperforming businesses that require operational support to improve profitability and create long-term, sustainable value ...

in May 2016. Book retailer Thalia was sold to the Herder family, a German family of publishers, in July 2016. Douglas bought French Perfumery Chain Nocibé in 2014.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Retail companies of Germany Retail companies established in 1971 Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia Companies formerly in the MDAX CVC Capital Partners companies Companies formerly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange Retail companies disestablished in 2017