Wertkauf Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH 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 that had 21 markets until its takeover by the US supermarket 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 in the United States and 23 other ...

in 1997. The group's head office was in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

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 or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. 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 a system whereby customers acquire (or serve) themselves goods or services, paying for the items at a point-of-sale, as opposed to a shop assistant or clerk acquiring goods or providing services in addition to taking payment. Comm ...

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 A forklift (also called industrial truck, lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th c ...

."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

. 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. , Metro is operating 626 wholesale stores in 21 countries, including Europe and P ...

in 2006.

References

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