History

Historical development
Expansion in Europe
Expansion to North America
Starting up in Eastern Europe with KAISER + KRAFT
Acquisition of Topdeq
Further expansion in Europe
Establishment of TAKKT AG, spin-off and IPO
Further product diversification in North America
Market penetration in Eastern Europe with KWESTO
Entering the Asian market
Portfolio further optimised in the USA
From North America to Europe
Expansion of online-strategy through pure online-brands

Historical development
KAISER + KRAFT was founded in 1945 by Helmut Kraft and Walter Kaiser in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim. Helmut Kraft began to implement the mail order concept in 1949. The idea behind this was to offer technical products to industry through catalogues and brochures and to sell them by mail order.

Once the mail order trade had established itself as a widely accepted method of purchasing at the beginning of the 1950s, KAISER + KRAFT was able to expand its range swiftly according to requirements. In order to react better to special customer demands, it began producing transport equipment itself in 1957.

Expansion in Europe
The first foreign company was acquired in 1967, and by 1983 five additional foreign companies had been established. After GEHE Aktiengesellschaft (now: Celesio AG) acquired KAISER + KRAFT in 1985, expansion in Europe increased rapidly. In 1987, a subsidiary was established in Italy and the first central warehouse for Europe was opened in Weiterstadt. In the same year, KAISER + KRAFT took over the Gaerner Group, which currently operates in six European countries, thus considerably expanding its customer base.

Expansion to North America
In 1988, the first step was taken towards North America. C&H Distributors was acquired to plant the seed for further growth. In the following years, several small American mail order specialists were acquired, and in 1994 the Canadian company Avenue was taken over. With this step, KAISER + KRAFT was already pursuing its strategy of greater independence from economic trends in individual regions.

Starting up in Eastern Europe with KAISER + KRAFT
The opening of the Eastern European market after 1990 was used to gain additional potential customers for the mail order business. In addition to expanding its German activities to the New Federal States of Germany, KAISER + KRAFT started up new companies in neighbouring countries. A subsidiary was established in Hungary in 1990, and this was followed by companies in Poland and the Czech Republic in 1992 and 1993, in Slovakia in 2007 as well as in Russia in 2009.

Acquisition of Topdeq
With the takeover of Topdeq in 1994, a new group of customers was acquired. Topdeq focuses primarily on customers in the service industry. There was rapid expansion in Europe: New companies were launched in 1995 and 1996 in Switzerland and the Netherlands, and France followed in 2000. From 2001 to 2009, Topdeq was also present in the United States. In 2005 and 2006, Topdeq started with new companies in Belgium and Austria. Since 2010, the company has also been operating a web shop in Spain.

Further expansion in Europe
In 1996, KAISER + KRAFT's mail order business in Great Britain expanded with the acquisition of Powell Mail Order. Regional expansion continued with the takeover of the Scandinavian Gerdmans Group in 1998. Since 2001, KAISER + KRAFT has also mailed catalogues in Portugal and Ireland.

Establishment of TAKKT AG, spin-off and IPO
In 1999, the entire mail order division of GEHE Aktiengesellschaft (now: Celesio AG), which until then had operated under the name KAISER + KRAFT, was spun-off and transferred to TAKKT AG. In preparation for the spin-off, the corporate divisions were restructured. TAKKT AG, which functions as a pure holding company, has been listed on the Frankfurt/Main and Stuttgart stock exchanges since 15 September 1999.

Further product diversification in North America
The range of products offered in the USA was consistently expanded with the acquisition of Conney Safety Products in 1998 and Hubert in 2000. Conney Safety offers work safety products, while Hubert enriches the existing product portfolio with its sales promotion items for retailers, the food service industry and the hotel market.

Market penetration in Eastern Europe with KWESTO
To improve market penetration, a catalogue geared to the specific requirements of small and medium-sized firms in Eastern Europe was introduced under the brand name of KWESTO. After successfully mailing its catalogue for the first time in the Czech Republic in 2000, new companies were established in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The KWESTO concept will allow the TAKKT Group to acquire new customers in other Eastern European countries in the medium term.

Entering the Asian market
In January 2003, the first KAISER + KRAFT catalogue was mailed in Japan. After intensive preparations, KAISER + KRAFT chose to enter the Asian market in Japan because it currently has the highest market potential for successful mail order activities. In 2006, the first Chinese catalogue was mailed.

Portfolio further optimised in the USA
The acquisition of National Business Furniture Group (NBF), the US market leader in B2B office furniture mail order, at the beginning of 2006 was an ideal growth platform for TAKKT to acquire more customers from the growing service sector in North America. In 2007, TAKKT sold Conney Safety Products to concentrate on the B2B mail order business in durable equipment. In 2009, TAKKT diversified the customer portfolio in the US service sector through its acquisition of Central Restaurant Products (“Central”) – the US leading mail order company for restaurant equipment.

From North America to Europe
The expansion of Hubert to Europe started in spring 2008. After thorough preparations, Hubert mailed its first catalogue in Germany in 2008, in France in 2009 and in Switzerland in 2010.

Expansion of online-strategy through pure online-brand
In October 2009, TAKKT AG expanded its e-commerce strategy with the brand Certeo, followed by the brand IndustrialSupplies.com in June 2010. As TAKKT's first pure European online platform, Certeo offers business equipment exclusively through the internet and addresses mainly small and middle size customers. IndustrialSupplies.com has a similar approach and represents the web-only brand of the Plant Equipment Group in North America. There, the Group already owns two successful web-only brands within the Office Equipment Group, namely officefurniture.com and officechairs.com.