During the period of "Aryanization" in 1938, Adolf Ahlers took over the operations of Elsbach in Herford, the largest textile company in Europe at the time.

The Jewish Elsbach family was forced to sell the shares in their company to Ahlers for far less than they were worth.

[4] The former managing director Kurt Elsbach, who had fled abroad, returned to the company in 1947, but died in 1954.

[6] In mid-June, the Röther Group announced that it would take over the Pierre Cardin, Baldessarini, Pioneer Jeans and Pionier workwear brands and that around 300 jobs would be lost.

[8] In 2024, the European Commission handed a total fine of 5.7 million euros ($6 million) to Ahlers and Pierre Cardin for breaching EU antitrust rules, arguing that the companies between 2008 and 2011 had anticompetitive agreements to shield Ahlers from competition in European countries where it held a Pierre Cardin license.