Crossing the Atlantic

TAKKT division Topdeq expanding into the US

The Stuttgart-based TAKKT AG is further expanding its position on the US market. At the beginning of 2001, TAKKT's division Topdeq, Europe's leading business-to-business mail order house for design-oriented office furniture, is entering the US market. Having set up companies in Switzerland, the Netherlands and France, Topdeq continues to pursue its growth strategy. In 1999, Topdeq recorded sales revenues of EURO 73.1 million. Georg Gayer, Chairman of TAKKT's management board, explains the reasons behind the third new TAKKT startup this year as follows: "With this new venture in the US, we are entering a further market which offers Topdeq immense growth potential for the future."

Taken as a whole, the market for office requisites in the US is worth some US dollar 225 billion, with the office furniture segment accounting for about US dollar 22.5 billion of this total. The overall growth rate of the market averages around 10 percent. Most of this growth is driven by 40 million offices in the so-called "SOHO" (small office/home office) sector. The number of new firms of this type being established each year is expected to average between 800,000 and 900,000.

With a sales volume of US dollar 900 million and above-average growth rates over the past few years, the mail order market for office furniture has been increasing steadily in importance. The reason for this expansion has been the tendency for enterprises to turn to the mail order trade as a means of procuring the products they require at a more reasonable price. As Gayer points out: "We anticipate a strengthening of this trend on each of the markets served by TAKKT. Irrespective of economic developments, mail order business - being the more efficient sales and marketing channel - will gain significant market shares from the retail and wholesale trades."

Topdeq USA is to be launched in New Jersey in January 2001 as a sales and distribution company with an initial workforce of 11 employees. The new enterprise will be making use of the infrastructure of its parent company in Germany - in particular the latter's centralized purchasing and advertising media resources. Roughly 2.6 million firms can be supplied with the traditional Topdeq 24-hour-service from this new base on the East coast. As before, the main focus of the Topdeq products will be on European design. Topdeq CEO David Murray explains that "European styling is currently very much 'in' in the US. As a result, the Topdeq range for the US is exactly the same as its European range. This makes us 'first movers' on the North American mail order market."

Karen Wolf, the new general manager of Topdeq USA, believes that top-quality service holds the key to success: "In the US we will be adopting the same approach which has proven so successful in Europe: top products, top consulting, plus top service. The Topdeq quality and service guarantees which have been so popular with our European clientele will apply on the American market as well: delivery within 24 hours, the right to return goods within 30 days, and a 60-month quality guarantee. We firmly believe that with this level of service we can win more than 10,000 new clients during the first year."

The Topdeq company
Topdeq, a division of TAKKT AG, was founded in 1989 and has its headquarters in Pfungstadt, south of Frankfurt. Within just four years, the mail order company for high-quality, visually appealing office outfitting developed into the foremost specialist mail order house in this sector. In 1999, it posted sales revenues of EURO 73.1 million. During the first nine months of this year, sales rose 22.4 percent to EURO 62.3 million, compared with EURO 50.9 million in the same period last year. With sales developing at this rate, Topdeq is now the TAKKT division with the highest growth rate.

Stuttgart, 17 November 2000

Contacts:

Georg Gayer
Phone +49 (0)7 11.50 01-239

Dr. Felix A. Zimmermann
Phone +49 (0)7 11.50 01-861