Fielmann AG

Fielmann AG
Company type	Public; (ISIN: DE0005772206)
Industry	Optics
Founded	1972
Founder	Günther Fielmann (CEO)
Headquarters	Hamburg
Revenue	€ 903 million (2008)
Number of employees	12,608 (2008)
Subsidiaries	620
Website	www.fielmann.com

Fielmann is a German optics company focussing on eyewear retail. With 626 subsidiaries in 2008, Fielmann gained an outlet share of 48% and a turnover market share of 22% in Germany. The company is seen as market leader in Germany.^[1]

External sales in Europe with branches in Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (including franchises and industries) amounted to € 1,058 million and a sale of 6.1 million glasses in 2008. The Fielmann stock is listed at the northern German regional HASPAX index.

Günther Fielmann, a state approved master optometrist, is the founder, major shareholder and chief executive officer of Fielmann AG.

History

In 1972 Günther Fielmann established an optometry shop in Cuxhaven. He recognised a market gap of glasses for mandatory health insurance customers, which were quite unpopular due to lack of choice. At the time there were only six plastic models of spectacle frames for adults and two for children.

In 1980 Fielmann signed a special contract with the AOK insurance at Esens and designed 90 frame models of plastic and metal in 640 variants. This was the end of an era with unitary health insurance glasses in Germany. In 1984 Fielmann started an advertising campaign with the slogan "Mein Papi hat keinen Pfennig dazu bezahlt! (My daddy didn't have to pay a cent himself!)" From 1987 to 1990 Fielmann expanded his share in the quantity market from 11% to 16% and at the time held 3% of all eyewear stores in Germany.

Fielmann is listed at the stock index since 1994. In the same year the company with 294 subisidiaries and 4,986 employees made a turnover of DM 868 million and a pre-tax profit of DM 80.5 million. In 1995 Fielmann took over Pro-Optik AG of Basel, Switzerland, with its 27 Swiss branches. The Fielmann shop in Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse gained an annual turnover of € 16 million. With 4% of all German eyewear stores, Fielmann increased its market share from 32% to 38% from 1995 to 1998. 1999 brought about the market entry to Austria and 24 branches were opened there until 2007.

In 2001 the non-profit Fielmann-Akademie was established, which bought Plön Castle from the government of Schleswig-Holstein in 2002 and opened a training centre for optometrists there. After several years of refurbishments the castle was re-opened in 2006.

In 2002 a large production and logistics centre was opened in Rathenow, Brandenburg, where 5 million spectacle frames are being shipped per year.

After the cancellation of eyewear products from the catalogue of Germany's mandatory health insurances, Fielmann together with HanseMerkur insurance created an initial tariff insurance.

In June 2007 Fielmann opened two subsidiaries in Luxembourg and is now present in five European countries save for Germany.

In 2008 the revenue increased at 7.6% to € 902.7 million. Pre-tax profit increased at 18.6% to € 161.8 million, income increased at 38.9% to € 113.9 million.^[2]

As of 31 December 2008 Fielmann operated 620 subsidiaries, employed 12,608 people, 2,212 of whom were in training. With a share of 5% of all German optometric stores, Fielmann provides 31% of all optometrist apprentices in Germany.

On 6 January 2009 Fielmann's stock indexing advanced from SDAX to MDAX.^[3]

Products

As a producer, broker and service provider, Fielmann covers the entire supply chain of the optometry branch. In future not only glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses but also hearing aids shall be offered.

Other activities

Every year, Fielmann plants one tree per employee, until recently this amounted to about 1 million trees and shrubs. Fielmann is engaged in environmental protection, historic preservation and organic farming. Günther Fielmann does this as an organic farmer on the Luetjensee and Ritzau estates. Fielmann supports schools, municipalities, old people's homes and promotes sport.