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WirtschaftswocheHistory

 

Competence starting at the roots

The Duke GmbH, founded by Peter Boder 1987, started off with the distribution of ties and bow ties. Soon, the product range extended into numerous textile articles: sweaters, scarves, jackets, trousers and shirts. Bright colours were replaced by licensing characters, which now embellish about 4,500 different products.  Duke GmbH turned into UNITEDLABELS GmbH and with its Initial Public Offering in 2000 it became UNITEDLABELS AG. Even though the product category expanded into gift articles, plush toys, stationary, bags, bathroom – and household accessories, the textile sector still played a major role.



1987 Foundation of Duke GmbH
1991 Foundation of UNITEDLABELS GmbH, first licence “The Peanuts”
1993 Disney licence in the portfolio
1998 Expansionof export to France, the Netherlands and Spain; Foundation of UNITEDLABELS S.A.R.L.
1999 Foundation of UNITEDLABELS Ibérica S.A.

2000 New market, Frankfurt – Initial Public Offering; acquisition of Colombine b.v.b.a. (Belgium); acquisition of Jocky Team S.A. (Spain)
2005 Foundation of UNITEDLABELS Italia; Foundation of UNITEDLABELS Ltd. (UK)

 
2006 Opening of the airportshop in Barcelona
2007 Opening of the House of Trends Europe GmbH
2008 35% interest of the Groupe Montesquieu France
2009 Opening of the UNITEDLABELS Shops in Maremagnum and of the second UNITEDLABELS airportshop in Barcelona
2010 Opening of the airportshops in Hamburg and Malaga
2010 Foundation of UNITEDLABELS Polska
2011 Foundation of Elfen Service GmbH (E-Commerce)
2011 Albert Hirsch is member of the board