In March 1949, Max Herz and Carl Tchilling-Hiryan founded a roasted coffee company in Hamburg. Her revolutionary business idea is to send coffee by post. Today, Tchibo is a retail giant.
The two merchants Max Herz and Carl Tchilling-Hiryan begin their joint project in Hamburg in 1949 by sending Tchilling coffee beans by post. Tchilling and beans soon became the brand name Tchibo. In the post-war period, the resourceful entrepreneurs lured their customers with a combination offer:the luxury product coffee was packed in tea towels or handkerchiefs as a bonus. When the economic miracle sets in, there are reusable cans for customers.
The first Tchibo branch opened in Hamburg in 1955 - with a bar
Even without his first partner, Tchilling-Hiryan, coffee entrepreneur Max Herz never ran out of ideas.Even if Herz continued the company from 1952 without Tchilling, there was no lack of ideas. In 1955, the first Tchibo branch opened in the Caffamacherreihe in Hamburg's Neustadt. Now there is the "Gold-Mocca", Germany's most popular coffee, freshly packaged in Hamburg. And customers can also drink coffee there and try it before they buy it. But Max Herz wants to expand. Together with his wife Ingeburg, he travels across Germany and looks for exclusive new locations with her. Ten years later there are 400 Tchibo branches.
In the 1960s, Tchibo focused on width
Selling in their own branches is soon no longer enough for the enterprising entrepreneur. Bakeries and confectioneries are brought on board, which also sell Tchibo coffee as so-called freshness depots from 1963. At the same time, the range of coffee specialties that customers can taste directly in the branches is growing.
In 1965 Max Herz died unexpectedly. His son Günter takes over the management and continues to expand the company.
The 70s bring everyday items to Tchibo stores
In Germany alone, Tchibo has around 550 branches (as of 2021).The 1970s brought some innovations again, for example, consumer goods that have nothing to do with coffee are now also on offer. For legal reasons, from 1973 Tchibo was no longer allowed to give away his "attentions" in addition to the coffee. The items that are still in stock are sold in the branches - the start of today's theme worlds has been made.
In 1971, Tchibo brought the first mild coffee onto the market and now plans to move into supermarkets with its own shelves.
Tchibo becomes the fourth largest coffee roaster
After a brief try, Tchibo quickly returns to the good old pound of coffee.In 1984, a new roasting process is said to make the beans more productive. From now on, Tchibo will only be selling 400 gram packs instead of the pound pack. But sales plummet and the company goes back to the pound pack.
Coffee is becoming a staple food - and the Hamburg-based company makes good money from it. With the takeover of competitor Eduscho in 1997, Tchibo became the fourth largest coffee roaster in the world.
"A new world every week"
But the world in the Tchibo shops, which now changes weekly, is also becoming more and more colorful and unusual. In addition to home and clothing textiles, household appliances, kitchen utensils, toys, jewelry and electronics, unusual sales campaigns occasionally attract attention:cars and travel are now making the Tchibo world big and wide and even green electricity can be obtained from Tchibo. In 2015, after five years, the company parted ways with this line of business.
From the good old filter coffee to the barista edition
In the world of coffee, too, the retail giant, which is still 100 percent owned by the Herz family, remains true to its principle of always moving with the times. As diverse as the preparation preferences of coffee lovers are - whether with a hand filter, capsule machine, fully automatic machine or a portafilter - Tchibo can serve them.
Tchibo has developed from a small coffee shop into a retail giant with a turnover of 3.12 billion euros in 2019 and more than 11,000 employees worldwide - and stands for a real Hamburg success story.