OBI (retail chain)
 | |
| OBI Bau- und Heimwerkermärkte | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Home improvement DIY store |
| Founded | 1970 in Hamburg-Poppenbüttel, Germany |
| Founders | Dr. Emil Lux Manfred Maus |
| Headquarters | , |
Number of locations | 668 (2018) |
Areas served |
|
Key people | Sergio Giroldi, CEO |
| Revenue |  €7.7 billion (2018) |
Number of employees | 42,000 (2015) |
| Parent | Tengelmann Group |
| Website | www |
OBI GmbH & Co. Deutschland KG is a German multinational home improvement supplies retailing company. It is headquartered in Wermelskirchen and operates 668 stores in Europe, of which 351 are in Germany.[1]
History
Obi was founded in 1970 by Emil Lux, Manfred Maus and Klaus Birker with the opening of the first Obi store in the Alstertal shopping center in Hamburg-Poppenbüttel.
In 1985 the Tengelmann Group acquired a majority stake in Obi. The share was increased in 2007 by buying the shares of the Lux founding family.
Obi has been present in Switzerland since 1999, in partnership with the Migros cooperative.[2]
It formerly had operated 13 stores in mainland China but these were sold to B&Q in 2005.[3]
The company expanded in Romania in 2008, where it opened 7 stores until 2010. Due to the economic crisis and the small market share, the company decided in 2014 to close the stores, 5 of them were sold to Jumbo. Also in 2008 the company opened the first 2 stores in Ukraine, followed in 2009 by a third store. They closed in 2013.
In 2015 OBI bought from Baumax, which went bankrupt, 45 stores in Austria, all 14 stores in Slovakia, the 2 stores in Slovenia and 4 stores in the Czech Republic.[4]
Operations
| Country | First store | Number of stores |
| Germany | 1970 | 351 |
| Italy | 1993 | 55 |
| Austria | 1995 | 82 |
| Poland | 1998 | 59[5] |
| Czech Republic | 1995 | 33 |
| Hungary | 1994 | 29 |
| Russia | 2003 | 28[6] |
| Slovakia | 2008 | 14 |
| Slovenia | 1998 | 8 |
| Switzerland (owned by Migros[2]) | 1999[2] | 10[2] |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina (owned by Solomaher) | 2003 | 1 |
References
- ^ "Obi makes around EUR 7.7 bn in 2018". diyinternational.com. 12 March 2019.
- ^ a b c d "Obi Suisse. Qui sommes-nous ?" Archived 2016-05-15 at the Wayback Machine (page visited on 30 March 2016).
- ^ "European store giant pulls out of mainland". scmp.com. 29 April 2005.
- ^ "DIY group Obi takes over Baumax". fordaq.com. 31 August 2015.
- ^ "Ekspansja" (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-04-26.
- ^ "OBI - О компании". OBI.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-07-29.
External links
- (in German) Official German website
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