industry paper founded 1904 founder carl herlitz g nter herlitz headquarters berlin germany key people hooi keat loo ceo thomas radke products office supplies and stationery revenue 197.1 million 2012 number of employees 1 335 fte 2012 website herlitz.de herlitz ag is a producer of paper office supplies and stationery articles in europe . herlitz international headquarters is located in berlin germany . contents 1 history 1.1 1904 1943 1.2 1945 1972 1.3 1972 1988 1.4 1988 2004 1.5 2004 today 2 herlitz today 3 awards 4 references 5 external links history edit 1904 1943 edit the company was founded in berlin by bookseller carl herlitz in september 1904 as a stationery wholesaler . he ran the small firm for 31 years before stepping down in 1935 for health reasons . herlitz expanded its distribution after the company was taken over by the son g nter herlitz . 1 the company had six employees at that time . after g nter herlitz was conscripted for military service his mother berta herlitz temporarily took over managing the company and maintained customer relations . in november 1943 the business premises in berlin were completely destroyed two times by the effects of the war ; business activity ground to a halt . 1945 1972 edit g nter herlitz resumed business operations as early as the summer of 1945 in a basement at first initially dealing in bargains of all kinds . at that time it was still possible to supply customers in east germany . during the berlin blockade 1948 49 the company herlitz was the only of around 20 berlin wholesalers to succeed in securing a minimal amount of goods shipped by air from west germany to berlin . the product range was expanded considerably once the blockade had ended . turnover doubled every four years from 1949 to 1994 . in 1960 herlitz established its own distribution organisation for west germany . the breakthrough on the german market was made with illustrated notebooks and exercise books animal motifs and athletic imagery . rapid development followed . up to 150 tonnes of paper were processed each month . 1972 1988 edit the expansion in the 1970s was reflected in the company s change in legal form as well as its international activity . herlitz was transformed into a joint stock company in 1972 . its first high bay warehouse with 6 000 pallet slots for finished goods went into operation in 1974 . it employed a staff of 504 on the annual average . 1974 marked the establishment of herlitz consult gmbh which was commissioned in 1975 to construct a turnkey factory for exercise books in baghdad . together with a bridge as well as a small mosque which were also built this was the largest single contract in the history of herlitz order volume 38 million deutsche mark . herlitz went public in 1977 while herlitz international trading hit ag which emerged from herlitz consult made its initial public offering at the end of the 1980s . the company continued to expand heavily in the 1980s as well . in 1985 for instance it acquired a shipping centre in berlin spandau which according to the 1986 guinness book of records had the largest high bay warehouse in the world with over 70 000 pallet slots . the first mcpaper stores were opened in the mid 1980s . the greeting card company susy card was acquired in 1987 . 1988 2004 edit several foreign distribution companies were established in europe as well as in texas usa 1981 1990 . in 1991 construction started on a new shipping centre in falkensee near berlin which went into operation in 1994 . after decade long company president and chairman of the board g nter herlitz who became chairman of the supervisory board bade farewell a dispute in the third generation broke out in 1988 between brothers peter and heinz . it ended in 1992 when heinz herlitz resigned . but herlitz s turnover continued to climb reaching a record result of 885 m in 1994 . in 1994 hit ag bought the russian paper factory wolga ag where exorbitant profits were made . in 1995 under new executive board chairman g rald jaslowitzer the entrepreneurially led family company gradually transformed into a management run holding which herlitz pbs ag herlitz falkenh h ag hit ag and mcpaper ag belonged to . in march 1995 jaslowitzer gave a weighty interview to german business magazine manager magazine 2 which signalled the end of hit ag once herlitz s most successful subsidiary . as a result mcpaper ag had to be sold to deutsche post ag in 1998 . heavy losses from 1998 to 2000 forced herlitz to make drastic cuts at the beginning of the 21st century . herlitz ag herlitz pbs ag and susy card filed for insolvency in april 2002 . the plan for insolvency proceedings was already concluded in september 2002 . herlitz succeeded in making it through insolvency proceedings in accordance with the new insolvency law in record time while keeping operations running . but turnover only amounted to 335 m in 2004 the year of the company s anniversary . 2004 today edit a rechargeable pen of the hobbit an unexpected journey by herlitz . effective as of the 4th of october 2005 stationery products s. . r.l. headquartered in luxembourg acquired 64 7 % of herlitz ag s capital stock . stationery products indirectly belongs to advent international corp. advent an internationally active private equity company headquartered in boston usa . the herlitz family holds approx . 15 % of the shares the rest is in scattered holdings . in november 2009 stationery products sold all of the shares to pelikan holding in malaysia . 3 jan von schuckmann is chairman of the board of herlitz since 2007 . this makes him the fourth head of the company in seven years . herlitz today edit the current production facilities are located in the town of falkensee near berlin and in poland romania and great britain . herlitz s logistics supply approx . 8 000 distribution centres in germany directly . another 3 000 customers throughout europe are served by herlitz . the share of exports amounted to 42 % in 2011 . 1 335 employees work for the herlitz corporation 1 100 of which are in germany . herlitz carries a product line of around 15 000 office supplies and stationery items . awards edit in 1990 herlitz was awarded with the german prize for logistics at the german logistics conference thus recognising the long time merits of klaus albig . the integrated environmental initiatives and improvements at the company were awarded with several national environmental prizes in the early 90s . references edit ihk berlin about herlitz dead link manager magazin 3 1995 pages 169 170 news about herlitz . finanznachrichten.de . 2009 . retrieved 2013 12 08 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to pelikan company . official website herlitz eraser collection retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title herlitz & oldid 736342318 categories manufacturing companies established in 1904manufacturing companies based in berlingerman brandscompanies listed on the frankfurt stock exchangeoffice supply companies of germanyhidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from may 2016commons category without a link on wikidataofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschespa olpolski edit links this page was last modified on 26 august 2016 at 20 38 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the 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