Douglas (company)

Douglas AG, doing business as Douglas Group, is a German multinational company specializing in perfumery and cosmetics. Its headquarters are located in Düsseldorf, Germany. The first perfumery to carry the name "Parfümerie Douglas" opened in Hamburg in 1910. Douglas GmbH was part of the Douglas Holding, but as of 1 June 2015, 85 percent belongs to the financial investor CVC Capital Partners, and 15 percent to the Kreke family.[3]

History

The name of the company can be traced back to the Scottish soap manufacturer John Sharp Douglas.[4] He came from a small village near Glasgow and on 5 January 1821, he founded a soap factory in Hamburg's warehouse district.[5] The factory was soon included in the "Hamburger Address Book" as "J.S. Douglas, Engl. Soap factory, Kehrwieder, Herbst Hof".[6]

The first Douglas Perfumeries

Berta Kolbe was the first woman to take over the management of J.S Douglas Sons. She received a business offer from Anna and Maria Carstens: the sisters wanted to open their own perfumery under the established name of "Douglas" to "establish and operate a business in soaps, perfumery products and toiletries in Hamburg."[4] And so, on 24 May 1910, the first "Parfümerie Douglas" opened on Hamburg's shopping street Neuer Wall, and even exists today.[7]

In 1929, the Carsten sisters passed the business on to their goddaughters Hertha and Lucie and their father, German artist Johannes Harders. As of 1931, the company was called "Parfümerie Douglas Harders & Co." and thus, reflected the new ownership structure. In 1936, the family hired Erhard Hunger to run the business. He reduced the soap business and expanded the assortment to premium brand products like Elizabeth Arden. By 1969, Erhard Hunger had expanded Douglas to six stores in Hamburg.

From perfumery to corporation

In 1969, the six Douglas perfumeries were taken over by the then listed Hussel AG.[11] Under the management of Hussel's chief executive at the time, John Kreke, Hussel AG fueled the expansion of the perfumery through more takeovers and store openings. These were initially consolidated under the name Hanhausen-Douglas GmbH. In the course of this development, Hussel AG was restructured into a holding group with two operating companies: one for confectionery and one for perfumeries. In 1973, Hanhausen-Douglas took over the Austrian chain Ruttner. As of 1976, all perfumery stores eventually operated under the name "Parfümerie Douglas" and the associated company under the name "Parfümerie Douglas GmbH".

Growth in Europe

In the 1980s, Parfümerie Douglas GmbH expanded into the Netherlands, France, Italy, and the United States. The company also grew in Germany through acquisitions such as "Er & Sie" perfumeries. This expansion led to an organizational restructuring, completed in 1989 with the founding of Douglas Holding AG, which replaced Hussel Holding AG.[12]

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Douglas opened stores in eastern Germany in the 90s and expanded into Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. Since the start of the new millennium, Douglas has expanded to Poland, Hungary, Monaco, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Denmark, Croatia and Slovenia. In addition to stationary retail, Douglas has also been selling its products via its own online shop since 2000.

At the annual general meeting in June 2001, Jörn Kreke handed over the chairmanship of the Douglas Holding to his son Henning Kreke after 32 years in the top position.[13]

Takeover by financial investor

In 2012, the Kreke family, together with the private equity investor Advent International, made a public takeover offer to the remaining shareholders of the listed parent company of the Douglas Group, Douglas Holding AG, which at that time also included the companies Thalia (books), Christ (jewelry), AppelrathCüpper (womensear) and Hussel (confectionary).[14] After the successful takeover in 2013, Douglas de-listed from the Frankfurt stock exchange.[15] This marked the beginning of the conglomerate's reorientation, which went back to being purely a perfumery chain in 2014. After that, Douglas continued to grow internationally and acquired the French perfumery chain Nocibé with 455 stores in 2014.[16] The 170 French Douglas branches that existed at the time were rebranded as Nocibé. In addition, the company expanded to Norway.

Change of ownership and strategic realignment

At first, a renewed stock market launch for the Parfümerie Douglas Deutschland was planned for 2015.[17] However, on 1 June 2015, 85 percent of the company was sold to financial investor CVC Capital Partners with the Kreke family still holding a minority share of 15 percent.[18]

Then, manager Isabelle Parize took over as CEO of Douglas in February 2016[19] and the headquarters was moved in October from Hagen to Düsseldorf.[17] According to Douglas, the company wanted all customer-oriented departments and the online activities from Cologne to be concentrated in one place.[20] In the same year, the company withdrew from Turkey due to a small market share.[21]

Restructuring and online growth

In November 2017, Tina Müller took over as the Group CEO of Douglas.[24]

In 2018, Douglas bought the majority of Parfümerie Akzente and its online shop Parfumdreams which operates in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

In January 2021, the company management decided to close around 500 of the 2,400 Douglas shops in Europe and instead to expand its own global online stores, which grew by 40.6% in 2020 to €822 million in sales.[25] In the 2020 financial year, which was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and ended in September of the same year, Douglas recorded a decline in sales of 6.4% with worldwide sales of €3.2 billion. The operating result for the 2020 financial year fell by more than 16.7% to €292 million compared to the previous year.[25]

In Spain, 103 of the 380 shops were closed and around 600 employees laid off.[26]

type	Public
trade name	Douglas Group
traded as	fwb: DOU SDAX
area served	Europe
key people	Sander van der Laan (CEO) Henning Kreke (Chairman)
industry	Retailing
products	Perfumes and cosmetics
revenue	€3.65 billion (2022) ‡R1R‡
operating income	−€79.6 million (2022)‡R1R‡
net income	−€306 million (2022)‡R1R‡
assets	€4.3 billion (2022)‡R1R‡
num employees	18,274 (2022)‡R1R‡
foundation	1910
location city	Düsseldorf
location country	Germany
locations	1,845 (2023)‡R2R‡
subsid	Douglas Nocibé Parfumdreams Niche Beauty
homepage	douglas.de douglas.group