The Otto Group (Otto GmbH & Co. KGaA) is a German retail company based in Hamburg that operates companies worldwide in the retail, e-commerce, financing, logistics and mail order sectors. In 2023, the Group generated sales of €16.2 billion and had around 41,186 employees.
History
In August 1949, Werner Otto founded the company Werner Otto Versandhandel (Otto Versand) in Hamburg.[1] In 1950, the first catalogue with a print run of 300 copies was published, presenting 28 pairs of shoes on 14 hand-bound pages.[2][3] The following year, the first printed catalogue comprised 28 pages and offered an extended product range, which subsequently further diversified in the 1950s and included, among others, porcelain, bicycles, and electrical appliances.[4] After further expansion, Otto Versand moved into a 205,000-square meter building in 1960. The number of employees increased to 2,000.