Beate Uhse AG

Beate Uhse AG
Public (FWB: USE)
Industry Retailing
Founded 1946
Founder Beate Uhse-Rotermund
Headquarters Flensburg, Germany
Area served
 In more than 60 countries worldwide
Products Sex shops
Website www.beate-uhse.ag/ Edit this on Wikidata
Beate Uhse shop

Beate Uhse AG is a German industry group with focus on selling adult entertainment in the form of sex toys, lingerie, clothing and pornography. It is the most successful company in the German sex industry,[1] and the country's leading pornography retailer.[2] It was founded by former German war-time pilot and sex pioneer Beate Uhse-Rotermund[1] in 1946 and started out as a distributor of pamphlets on family planning called Schrift X (Document X) which was a major success. In 1962 the company opened the world's first sex shop in Flensburg, West Germany.[1] When pornography was finally made legal in West Germany in 1976, Beate Uhse was well-prepared with a widely known and respected brand name and an established mail order business. By 1992 it owned 30 sex shops and 25 cinemas, had a turnover of 100 million Deutschmarks, and 10 million customers visited its premises.[2] It currently has over 1,500 employees, is active in 60 countries and has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 1999. Uhse remained the chairwoman of the company until her death in 2001.[1] In 2004 Beate Uhse AG opened the first Mae B. shop, a chain of sex shops specifically aimed at female consumers. In 2004 the combined sales of the Beate Uhse industry group was €280 million, making it the largest distributor of adult-related entertainment and products in the world. Profits have dropped significantly in the year 2006 - 2007.[3]

History

Today, Beate Uhse operates in the three business units Retail, Mail Order and Wholesale. The Entertainment division was sold to tmc Content Group AG in September 2016.[4]

As of September 30, 2007, the company employed 1,425 people and generated sales of just under €271 million in 2006. In 2009, just under €231 million were implemented, the number of employees at the end of the year 1,222. In 2010, €197.7 million were implemented, the number of employees was 975. In 2012, €144 million were still implemented, the number of employees was 704. In 2015, sales amounted to €128 million. The number of employees was 600 in 2016. 150 jobs are to be reduced. 16 of the 78 stores, including 3 in Germany, are to be closed.[5]

On December 15, 2017, the company filed for bankruptcy in self-government.[6]

Logos

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Amy Goodpaster Strebe, Trish Beckman (2007). Flying for her country: the American and Soviet women military pilots of World War II. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 3. ISBN 0-275-99434-1.
  2. 1 2 Wolfgang Glatzer (1992). Recent social trends in West Germany, 1960-1990. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 429. ISBN 3-593-34402-5.
  3. ↑ http://www.fmwf.com/newsarticle.php?id=1374&cat=5, Financial Mail Women's Forum, 26 August 2007
  4. ↑ beate-uhse.ag: Beate Uhse verkauft Entertainmentsparte im Rahmen eines Assetdeals
  5. ↑ Erotik-Pinonier in der Krise: Sex sells? Warum Beate Uhse trotzdem am Abgrund steht, stern.de, 19. Februar 2016
  6. ↑ Pressemitteilung des Unternehmens, 15. Dezember 2017
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