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Wolfgang Grupp earned millions with Aldi and ended the partnership on principle

2022-11-29T04:03:59.394Z


Wolfgang Grupp earned millions with Aldi and ended the partnership on principle Created: 2022-11-29 04:54 By: Sina Alonso Garcia Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp refused to produce a private label for Aldi that didn't have his Trigema logo on it. © Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/IMAGO/ANP (photomontage BW24) A traditional company like Trigema is rarely found in the textile industry in Germany today. Managin


Wolfgang Grupp earned millions with Aldi and ended the partnership on principle

Created: 2022-11-29 04:54

By: Sina Alonso Garcia

Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp refused to produce a private label for Aldi that didn't have his Trigema logo on it.

© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/IMAGO/ANP (photomontage BW24)

A traditional company like Trigema is rarely found in the textile industry in Germany today.

Managing Director Wolfgang Grupp values ​​principles - and even ended a partnership with the profitable major customer Aldi in the 80s.

Burladingen - The Trigema company from the Swabian town of Burladingen differs in many ways from the rest of the textile manufacturers in Germany.

Like hardly anyone else, owner Wolfgang Grupp insists on domestic production - and is considered by many to be a prime example of a traditional family business.

For more than 50 years, Grupp has defied the change to "fast fashion" in the textile world.

Although Trigema once supplied the major customer Aldi for many years and earned up to 36 million euros a year, Grupp has ended the partnership, as he explains in the

OMR podcast

.

Until 1987, Trigema supplied the discounter Aldi with clothing - including underwear and polo shirts with the Trigema logo.

“Aldi sold our product relatively cheaply.

They set their pricing significantly lower than the rest of retail,” recalls Grupp.

"When I started with Aldi, they added an eight percent premium to our price.

At that time, however, retail trade calculated with a surcharge of up to 120 percent - in comparison, of course, it was very cheap." Through the partnership with Trigema, Aldi has created a good image in terms of quality, reports

BW24

.

"At some point, however, Aldi wanted its own brand," says the company patriarch.

“I would have done that too, but not for half the price.

And that's why I was the first to lose all major customers.

Because I had the courage to say no sometimes.”

Wolfgang Grupp: Own Trigema branches make the company independent from big players

The textile company also owed the fact that Trigema was not dependent on Aldi to an early conversion to its own shops.

Today the company operates 42 so-called test shops in Germany.

In the shops, the success of collections, colors and cuts is “tested” by customer sales.

The area, which now accounts for around 40 percent of total sales at Trigema, is headed by Grupp's wife Elisabeth.

40 percent of the rest of the turnover is generated via the company's own online shop and 20 percent via various customers.

Instead of fashionable fast fashion, Trigema focuses on timeless clothing.

and advertises quality and sustainability.

As Grupp reports in the

OMR podcast

, Trigema has been committed to sustainable production since 2006.

"We were already talking about climate change back then - and I said: Sustainability is future-oriented and everything that is future-oriented was always important to me - and that I'm one of the first to do it." A path to more sustainability at Trigema, for example, T-shirts that decompose themselves.

According to the company, all materials of a garment can be completely reused without any loss of quality.

With the Mercedes EQS, Grupp also focuses on environmental friendliness in his private life and drives "100 percent electrically", as he emphasizes.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-29

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