Müller Ltd. & Co. KG (Müller) is a chain of retail stores with headquarters in Ulm, Germany. Between 2004[3] and 2019 the company was registered in London. Since 2019 it has been registered in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.[4]

Müller Holding GmbH & Co. KG
Company typeLimited, KG
IndustryRetail
FoundedMarch 5, 1953 (1953-03-05)
Headquarters,
Number of locations
908
Area served
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain
Key people
  • Erwin Franz Müller
  • Elke Menold
Revenue€4.01 billion (2020)[1]
Number of employees
35,000 (2023)[2]
Websitewww.mueller.de

History

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The hairdresser Erwin Franz Müller [de] founded his company in Ulm on 5 March 1953. By 1968 the company had opened additional outlets in Munich and Karlsruhe. In 1976 the construction of a corporate headquarters began in Ulm-Jungingen. In 1978 annual revenue crossed 100 million D-Mark for the first time. From 1980 to 1985 the company opened 59 new outlets, was converted into the Müller GmbH & Co. KG in 1985 and then opened another 86 outlets by 1990. Since then the company has expanded in Europe.

Müller has more than 34,000 employees.[2] In 2010 the company earned revenues of €2.42 billion. Erwin Müller and Elke Menold are General Managers of the company.

In 2004, the company was transformed into a Limited & Co. KG (a hybrid of the English cognate of the German GmbH and the German word "Compagnie Kommanditgesellschaft", meaning "limited partnership") when the company registered under English law in London.

Müller in Europe

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By 2023 Müller had a total of 908 outlets in 7 European countries:[2]

Country No. of stores
Austria 102
Croatia 88
Germany 575
Hungary 33
Slovenia 19
Spain 22
Switzerland 69

Products

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Müller is primarily a cosmetics store with large drugstore (approx. 50,000 items) and perfumery (approx. 28,000 items) section,[2] but apart from beauty care products it also sells commodities and fashion accessories, health food and dietary supplements, as well as some over-the-counter drugs, household products, toys, multi-media (i.e. movies on DVD as well as music CDs), stationery and books. Its portfolio consists of approx. 188,000 products total.[2]

Unlike competing chains, such as dm-drogerie markt, Müller mostly sells products directly from the German domestic market (in a manner similar to parallel importing) in all countries where it operates. Because of this, many Croats go to Müller to shop for cosmetics, detergents and most-famously, Nutella[5] as the one offered in other retail stores is of lower quality.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Published in public register
  2. ^ a b c d e "Fakten". mueller.de. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  3. ^ Wirtschaftwoche vom 18. Juli 2006 “Der König der Drugstores ”
  4. ^ "Müller zieht nach Vaduz".
  5. ^ "Opet svi pričaju da su stvari u našim dućanima bitno gore nego na zapadu pa smo ih (posve nestručno) testirali".
  6. ^ "Testing Reveals Big Brands Selling Inferior Products in Croatia". September 2017.
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