Information for press representatives

With an annual turnover of over € 200 million, Umdasch is one of the biggest and most important players on the European shopfitting scene. Since the purchase of the Styrian shopfitters Assmann in 2001, the concern had pursued a two-brand strategy in its market operations. UMDASCH Shopfitting is a professional shopfitting partner for the non-food areas of the retail sector, while Assmann Ladenbau is a sought-after address in the fields of food and health and beauty stores. The reference lists included well-known clients such as A1, Esprit, Gebr. Heinemann, Gigasport, Globetrotter, Hugo Boss, Intersport Eybl, Kastner & Öhler, Mexx, Migros, Mulberry, Nike, NKD, Reno, s.Oliver, Selfridges, Sportalm, Swisscom, Wolford or rather Bipa, Billa, dm, REWE and Spar. The customer portfolio is also much in evidence in the new G 3 shopping centre in Gerasdorf, to the north of Vienna, which will be opening its doors on 18 October. Umdasch and / or Assmann were involved in the project, providing various service modules, for example for Bipa, dm, Esprit, Geox, Martin the health-food store, Northland, Reno, Saturn, s.Oliver, Tchibo, the Trachten-Supermarkt and Turek.
 
“With the focus on a strong brand operating internationally and a unique range of services we can support retailers and brands as equal partners as they set out to master exciting challenges,” explained Helmut Neher. The “E-Volution” in retailing is just one of these challenges, requiring a well thought-out interconnection between digital concepts and real shop areas. The tremendous speed with which the new formats and concepts crowd onto the market, also shortens the life-cycles and hence the refurbishing cycles. At the same time there is a continued increase in both concentration and globalisation in the retail sector. In order to operate successfully in this setting, a shopfitting company also requires a high degree of professionalism in a variety of disciplines.
 
360° Shopfitting

The new brand UMDASCH Shopfitting stands for a cross-sector, integrated range of shopfitting services: ‘360° Shopfitting’. The professionals at Umdasch offer expert knowledge and interconnected planning in the sector areas “Fashion & Style”, “Food & Care” and “Home & Entertainment”. The service areas in each case are subdivided into Shop Consult (professional store branding), Shop Project (project and construction management), Shop Systems (shopfitting systems) and Shop Academy (training and continuing learning for retail professionals).
 
Helmut Neher is convinced: “Both Assmann and Umdasch have celebrated great successes in the past, from which the new brand will now be able to profit. In future we shall be offering our customers the best of both worlds.” The Shop Academy, for example, which to date has been firmly rooted in the non-food world, is now developing event formats for the food retail sector. And the idea of sustainability, which is very strongly anchored in the corporate culture of Assmann, will be consistently transferred to UMDASCH Shopfitting. Assmann is one of the few shopfitting companies which is certified in accordance with ISO 14001:2004; and now, over the next few years, all the Central European production locations of UMDASCH Shopfitting will follow. It is this access to seven own production plants and an international sourcing network which provides Umdasch customers with an optimal mix of speed, deadline security, quality and price.
 
As is generally known, the Umdasch Concern (Umdasch AG) with its headquarters in Amstetten/ Lower Austria, operates via its two product areas formwork technology (Doka Group) and shopfitting (Umdasch Shopfitting Group). Over 7,000 staff members are employed worldwide, almost 1,500 of them in shopfitting. Of the concern revenues of € 968 million (2011), 78.5 % can be attributed to the Doka Group and 21.5 % to the Umdasch Shopfitting Group. The new legal structure of the Umdasch Shopfitting Group from 2013 provides that within the Umdasch AG, the Umdasch Shopfitting Group GmbH with corporate offices in Amstetten should form the umbrella company for the operative companies of the Umdasch Shopfitting Group. The companies Umdasch Shopfitting GmbH in Austria and Assmann Ladenbau GmbH Leibnitz, which are currently both active, will become a single company from a legal point of view and will operate as Umdasch Shopfitting GmbH with headquarters in Leibnitz. Further national companies of UMDASCH Shopfitting operate in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.

Space for People

The unique positioning of UMDASCH Shopfitting on the European shopfitting market is to be more clearly expressed in future through a new Corporate Design. The design of the communications media will be as multifaceted and varied as the retail sector. The use of colour accents for the claim “Space for People” will focus attention on what determines shops today: the fact that it is the people who make bricks-and-mortar shops into places of encounter and meeting places. And that is why the mission of UMDASCH Shopfitting states “We build shops in which people feel at ease.”


Press contact:
Petra Böttinger-Barth, T +43 7472 605 2011, petra.barth@umdasch-shopfitting.com