Book Trade Standing Shoulder to Shoulder: Mayersche and Thalia merge to become Europe´s leading book retailer
- The combination of 55 Mayersche bookstores in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate and the 300 Thalia stores in the German speaking world now gives us Europe's leading family-led bookseller
- Hartmut Falter, Mayersche Owner and CEO to be Managing Partner with Thalia
- Regional Bookselling know-how supplements innovative Omni-Channel-Strategy
Aachen/Hagen 10th January 2019. The Mayersche book traders and Thalia are merging. The combination of 55 Mayersche bookstores in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate and the 300 Thalia stores in the German speaking world now gives us Europe's leading family-led bookseller.
The Thalia shareholder group, made up of the Herder, Kreke, Busch and Göritz families will be strengthened by the Aachen based Falter family. "Both companies will learn from each other and their strengths will be of great benefit to the customer," explained Dr. Hartmut Falter owner and CEO of the tradition-steeped Mayersche booksellers and future second managing partner at Thalia. "The expertise of Mayersche and Thalia will bring about a new and complementary level of quality."
The changing environment in book retailing requires future-orientated concepts and alliances. "Thalia and Mayersche are merging into an innovative bookseller that will not only be a major player in the market, but also, in international comparison, the most successful omni-channel bookselling business" says Michael Busch, CEO and executive partner of Thalia. The merger also sends out a clear message to the sector. Busch: "We're banking on stable alliances and partnerships, we, in the German book trade are more successful when we act together."
Manuel Herder, publisher from Freiburg and majority stakeholder in Thalia is excited by the merger of the two companies. "For entrepreneurial families in the book trade it's the just the right step. We're putting down a marker against the market power of global online retailers and standing up for high-street reading culture."
The parties involved have agreed not to disclose details of the contract which is subject to approval by the Federal Cartell Office.
About Mayersche
The Mayersche bookshop was founded in Aachen in1817 by Jacob Anton Mayer. It celebrated its second centenary anniversary in 2017. Since its foundation Mayersche has been in family ownership. Today the long-established company is run by the family Falter and is represented in 55 locations in the west of Germany. The Shop-in-Shop provider Best of books is part of the company. All in all 1000 employees including 120 trainees are employed by the company. Further information on www.mayersche.de, www.bestofbooks.de
About Thalia
Thalia was established in 1919 in Hamburg and today is market leader in retail bookstores in the German-speaking world. The company is owned by the Herder, Kreke, Busch and Göritz families. With around 300 bookstores in Germany and Austria, including a 50% share in more than 30 Orell Füssli Thalia PLC bookstores in Switzerland. Thalia combines bookselling tradition and innovative digital services which make the shopping experience individual, inspiring and at the same time enjoyable. The company's successful omni-channel strategy enables access for the customer to its products via all imaginable channels. With around 3,000 events per year, Thalia is one of the biggest promoters of reading and literature in Germany. Thalia
Press Contact:
Mayersche: Katja Mankiewicz, Head of Marketing and PR, E-Mail: k.mankiewicz@mayersche.de, Tel.: ++49 (0) 241 4777 554
Thalia: Claudia Bachhausen-Dewart, Head of Corporate Communications, E-Mail: presse@thalia.de, Tel.: ++ 49 (0) 2331 8046 1559