Heinemann SE & Co. KG is a Hamburg-based distributor and retailer in the international travel market.
[2] The brothers began with duty- and tax-free wholesale trade in tobacco products and liquor.
Due to the latter's untimely death, Otto Heinemann's son Helmut succeeded his as a partner in 1937.
Heinemann also supplied the new duty-free shops on ferries to Scandinavia with tobacco and confectionery products as well as liquor.
Because of the new field of air travel, perfume and cosmetics were added to the range, followed later by fashion and accessories, confectionery and gift items.
In 1979, Gunnar and Claus Heinemann replaced their fathers and continued the family business in the fourth generation.
[14] 2013 marked the year that the company expanded into the American market with Heinemann Amercias, based in Miami.
In 2016, the company founded another joint venture with Duty Free International (DFI) from Malaysia.
[4] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 and the accompanying lockdowns, significantly fewer people traveled than before, resulting in less merchandise being purchased in airport shops.
Heinemann established a wholly owned subsidiary, Gharage, with the purpose of investing in start-ups within the travel and retail industries.
[2] Managers Dirk Schneider, Florian Seidel, and Kai Deneke serve as members of the executive board.
The company has a total of about 500 of its own shops as a retailer at airports (about 340),[21] cruise ships, and border crossings.
[1] The company also operates its own logistics centers in the German cities Hamburg-Allermöhe and in Erlensee.
Heinemann itself, as well as for distribution customers, the company sells branded goods in the fields of cosmetics, alcohol, confectionery, food, tobacco products and fashion.
[2] Due to collusion with competitor James Richardson over the license to operate duty-free shops at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, the Arbitration Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce ordered the company to pay damages on November 19, 2021.