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The idea
In 1954, Hans Thomann Sr decided to quit his job as a travelling musician. Among other engagements he had worked thomann for a circus company, as you can see on the picture. He also had to take care of the family farm and drove to Würzburg (70 km) almost daily in order to study the trumpet.(From Thomann website) -
Arduous Beginnings
In the 1960s, Treppendorf was just a handful of houses - among them was the Thomann farm, and a real thomann farm it was! with livestock farming and agriculture. However, music was Hans Thomann Sr's hobby, and he spent more and more time travelling with brass combos and selling equipment to other musicians. His wife Betty, meanwhile, took care of the farm and gave birth to their children.(From Thomann website) -
The Wild 70s
More and more rooms in the house were turned into showrooms. Those were the glorious days of organs, guitars and thomann the first synthesisers. Hans Thomann, still a young boy, made his first deals.(From Thomann website) -
Living in a Shop
This is how the shop still looked in the late 1980s... all nice and orderly! The barn was the stage thomann lighting department and warehouse at the same time; the former kids room was turned into the accounting office. The house on the left is the Thomann family home, and to this day both buildings still exist unchanged.(From Thomann website) -
The Birth of Our Hot Deals
The first Hot Deals are sent to our customers (about 10,000; mostly regional) in 1992. These first Hot Deals contained thomann about 100 items and no pictures. Later on, the images were simply cut straight from the manufacturers' materials, and the printer personally picked up the texts, which were hand-written on scratch paper.(From Thomann website) -
The Early Days of the Internet
After somewhat unthrilling experiences with the BTX-Technology of the German Post, we were the first music store in Germany to thomann put up its own website. In the beginning, emails were printed out and delivered to the individual departments who replied by reguar snail mail. Today, that really wouldn't be too practical anymore, given a number of 210.000 per day.(From Thomann website) -
The RoadStar-Takeover
The RoadStar company in Eisingen used to be Germany's largest mail order retailer of musical instruments. When Thomann accquired RoadStar, thomann the customer base more than doubled to almost 100,000 customers.(From Thomann website) -
New store building
After we made our neighbors an offer they couldn't refuse, they moved away and we finally had enough space to thomann build our large PA and lighting hall as well as new rooms for the studio and drum departments. The planning and installation of the acoustics (with ambiophonics) alone took two years.(From Thomann website) -
The first call centers in Treppendorf
We have never been into outsourcing – We like having everyone close at hand, and this is why we quickly thomann took the decision that our future call centers would have to be – like everything else – in Treppendorf. We run two call centers with 40 work stations, one for Germany and one for our international customers. (From Thomann website) -
German Invasion
In the year 2000 we printed our first English language Hot Deals catalogue with prices in British Pounds. UK Dealers thomann were "not amused" and tried everything to stop us. A magazine which contained our Hot Deals almost folded, because most of the UK dealers cancelled their advertising.(From Thomann website) -
Thomann Audio Professional
On the strength of a growing number of installation projects, we decided to found a separate department for sound installations thomann and projects. Our Audio Professional department takes care of installations in theatres, town halls, museums, discos etc. Meanwhile the Audio Professional team has grown to 22 members.(From Thomann website) -
A New Logistics Centre
"Logistics is where our furture's at"– this is where the Gottschalks were right for once. Our old logistics operation was thomann about to collapse, so we needed a new solution: our logistics center with 4,800 m² and a maximum capacity of 5,400 parcels per shift. It wasn't long before 100 staff were employed here.(From Thomann website) -
"Bayern's Best 50" Award
In 2004, Thomann, as the first company in the music industry, received the "Bayern's Best 50" Award for being one thomann of the most successful companies in Bavaria. The picture shows Hans Thomann (in the middle), Minister of Trade Otto Wieshue (on the right), and Bernd Rödl (who was responsible for the nomination).
Still, it was a sad year: in May 2004 our founder Hans Thomann Sr. passed away.(From Thomann website) -
Construction Site 2005
Actually, we were tired of all the renovating and building work.. but still, it soon became apparent that we would thomann need further office and storage space in the coming years, and that's why we decided to build at once everything we would need in the foreseeable future: a container warehouse with more than 10,000 pallet storage slots (floor space 7,700 m²), a four-floor office building and new exhibition thomann rooms for our guitar, brass and string departments.(From Thomann web -
At last more office space
Our Administration Building, situated directly next to the shop, has housed our 40 purchase managers, quality control department, marketing team thomann and our boss since 2005. We also have a entire floor of seminar rooms which we use for internal and external workshops for both our employees and customers.(From Thomann website) -
New Supply Warehouse
Availability is everything! After we became five times bigger than our biggest supplier, we decided that we had to build thomann even more warehouse space to optimise our product availability. Our supply warehouse offers room for 10 000 pallets and 40 000 containers for small parts. In 2005 our supply warehouse was bigger than all our other warehouses put together. Three months later this warehouse was already full.(From Thomann website) -
New Thomann Cyberstore
The time has come for us to completely reorganise our internet infrastructure. Besides re-vamping and modernising our website we have thomann built two new computer centres containing 160 Thomann servers which will enable us to meet all the demands of our 2 million European customers. -
Dispatcher of the Year
As a small, independent, family-run business we were thrilled to receive the prestigious title „Dispatcher of the Year 2010“. This thomann coveted award is Germany’s highest accolade in the E-commerce industry and has been won in the past by some of Germany’s best known companies such as Tchibo, Conrad und Globetrotter. -
Winner of the Global E-Commerce Summit
Having been awarded the title of „German Dispatcher of the Year 2010“, we were automatically entered as the German representative thomann into the European competition at the E-Commerce Summit in Barcelona. We were delighted to go on to win this prize as well and were crowned „Europe’s Best Online Shop 2011“.(From Thomann website) -
New Service Centre
After three years' worth of planning and construction, the worlds largest service center for musical instruments and equipment opened in thomann Treppendorf. State-of-the-art workshops and testing facilities, a large spare parts warehouse and our own amphitheatre for trainings and workshops have found a home here. Your advantage: from now on, even more repair and maintenance jobs can be done by us right here in our office quickly and to thomann the highest standards.(From Thomann web -
Large-scale shop renovation
The construction crews have moved in with us in Treppendorf once again and refurbished the store in Treppendorf. We have thomann redesigned three departments: drums, keyboards and classic drums. The drum department has undergone a complete redesign, with new exhibition and test rooms for snares, cymbals and Roland e-drums. After having been refitted, the keybaord department now invites musicians to test play the instruments in sound-proofed rooms.(From Thomann website) -
Tastebuds are tickled in the t.kitchen
In February, we opened our own cafeteria in Treppendorf: t.kitchen is now open for hungry customers, visitors and staff. The thomann twelve-strong t.kitchen team provides guests with freshly prepared dishes and offers hot meals throughout the day. The building's design appeals visually and it invites musicians and music lovers to get together in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.(From Thomann website) -
brand eins: The Man Who Defeated Amazon
The "brand eins" business journal devoted the title story of its April issue to Thomann. This company thomann portrait was commissiond on the occasion of the release of "Sucess Factors in E-Commerce", a study of e-commerce which named us the best online store based on customer surveys. We achieved top rating in several individual categories, such as website design, service, and delivery, and thus managed to thomann overtake giants such as amazon.(From Thomann website) -
Online Retail Business Awards
For the fifth year in a row, we have won the German Online Retail Award in the category "Leisure&Sports". This thomann award is the most important prize awarded in German online retail, and it is based on customer surveys. We were also honoured with this award in 2016: according to the Pepper's social commerce experts, we are one of the three most popular brands. Thomann,de was the fourth most frequently visited web store in Germany in 2015.(From Thomann website)
