TA Triumph-Adler
Grundig merged Triumph and Adler
A German economic miracle celebrates a birthday
Max Grundig, who was without doubt one of the greatest figures in German post-war history, would have been 100 on May 7, 2008. Not many people know that the legendary Franconian manufacturer of radios and televisions also established one of the most successful office machine companies in the business exactly 50 years ago. This company is today – after an eventful history – the market leader in the document business in Germany.
Nuremberg, May 7, 2008 – Max Grundig is one of the most important industrialists of the post-war era. He was once described as the ‘master of the market economy’. In 1957, Grundig took over Triumph in Nuremberg and Adler in Frankfurt. He merged both companies to create the world’s fifth-largest office machine manufacturer. In 1958, the Grundig-Electronic-Triumph-Adler (GTA) joint sales organisation marked the practical start of the merger between Triumph and Adler. Max Grundig would have celebrated his 100th birthday on May 7, 2008.
The pioneer of consumer electronics had a rapid rise to prominence, becoming the world’s biggest manufacturer of radios and televisions during the ‘Wirtschaftswunder’ era. Grundig’s big breakthrough came in 1946 with his Heinzelmann radio kit. By 1952, he was one of Europe’s largest radio manufacturers, and in the same year he produced his first television. In 1955, Grundig was the number one name for phonographs and one of the biggest manufacturers of radiogrammes.
Grundig had turned his attention to the booming office technology sector following the success of his Stenorette office voice recorder. In 1956, Grundig he took advantage of the opportunity to buy out Triumph in Nuremberg and Adler in Frankfurt. Grundig named the legendary family of typewriters after his granddaughter Gabriele. Millions of people wrote on their ‘gabriele’. Successful Viennese author Johannes Mario Simmel (whose works include ‘It can’t always be caviar’, published in 1960) typed all of his novels using a mechanical ‘gabriele’.
Under the umbrella of his electronics group, Grundig created the Triumph/Adler group of companies. Thus began the development of the TA Triumph-Adler brand, a process which was completed a decade later.
In 1968, Grundig sold Triumph/Adler to the US conglomerate Litton. He invested the proceeds of the sale to the Americans in the construction of the world’s most modern colour television manufacturing facility in Nuremberg Langwasser. By the end of the 1970s, the Grundig empire had reached its zenith, employing 38,000 people and achieving sales of one billion. Soon afterwards, however, cheap competition from the Far East and structural changes as a result of the digital revolution heralded the decline of the business. Grundig retired from his company in 1984. He died on December 8, 1989, aged 81.
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Press contact:
TA Triumph-Adler AG
Karl Rainer Thiel
Head of Corporate Communication & PR
Südwestpark 23
D-90449 Nürnberg
Tel.: +49 (0) 9 11/ 68 98 -3 51
E-mail: krt@ta.ag
trio-market-relations GmbH
Andrea Bolowich
Käfertaler Straße 190
D-68167 Mannheim
Tel.: +49 (0) 6 21/3 38 40-1 83
E-mail: a.bolowich@trio-group.de
About TA Triumph-Adler AG:
In the document business, TA Triumph-Adler is the specialist. The company analyses, individually advises and realises an efficient document workflow for business customers, in both paper and electronic form, and delivers an effective service. With over 178,000 installed systems and more than 34,000 satisfied end customers and 112 years’ experience in the document business, the Group is the market leader in Germany. Over 450 internal document consultants and 500 internal system supporters guarantee an all-inclusive service. The Group is there for its customers in over 13 legally independent solution centres (limited companies) in over 50 locations throughout Germany and abroad. TA Triumph-Adler offers complete and unique modular solution concepts (hardware = TOM ‘Total output Management’; software = DIDO ‘Digital Document Organisation’). The company is a full-line distributor for printing, faxing, copying, scanning and DMS and has its own financial service provider in the form of TA Leasing GmbH, which provides virtually every form of financing for business customers. Together with the specialised TA Triumph-Adler Corporate Consulting GmbH, the document specialist works with established key accounts both within Germany and abroad. TA Triumph-Adler AG has a prime standard rating on the German stock exchange (WKN 749500) and, with 1,365 employees (150 of whom are trainees) generated sales of EUR 416 million during the 2007 business year. The company demonstrates its social and civic responsibility through the Triumph-Adler ‘Kinder in Not’ Foundation, feels a duty to protect the environment and carries out efficient and comprehensive corporate governance. The company’s headquarters are located in Nuremberg.
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