About The Biggest Perfumes Companies ( HUGO BOSS )

Hugo Boss started his clothing company in 1924 in Metzingen, a small town south of Stuttgart, where it is still based. Due to the economic climate in Germany at the time, Boss was forced into bankruptcy. In 1931, he reached an agreement with his creditors, leaving him with six sewing machines to start again.

The same year, he became a member of the National Socialist (Nazi) party and a sponsoring member ("Förderndes Mitglied") of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and his economic situation improved with their help. He later stated that he had joined the party because of their promise to end unemployment and because he felt "temporarily" withdrawn from the Lutheran church. He joined the German Labour Front in 1936, the Reich Air Protection Association in 1939, and the National Socialist People's Welfare in 1941. His sales increased from 38,260 RM in 1932 to over 3,300,000 RM in 1941, while his profits increased in the same period from 5,000 RM to 241,000 RM. Though he claimed in a 1934/1935 advertising that he had been a "supplier for National Socialist uniforms since 1924", such supplies are probable since 1928/1929 and certain since 1934, when he became an Reichszeugmeisterei-licensed (official) supplier of uniforms to the Sturmabteilung, Schutzstaffel, Hitler Youth, National Socialist Motor Corps, and other party organizations. To meet demand in later years of the war, Boss used about 30 to 40 prisoners of war and about 150 forced (i.e. slave) labourers, from the Baltic States, Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union.^[According to German historian Henning Kober, the company managers were "avowed Nazis", "the Boss were all great admirers of Adolf Hitler", and Hugo Boss himself had in 1945 in his apartment a photograph of himself with Hitler taken in the latter's Obersalzberg retreat.

 

In a 1946 judgement, based on his early party membership, his financial support of the SS and the uniforms delivered to the Nazi party even before 1933, Boss was considered both an "activist" and a "supporter and beneficiary of National Socialism". He was stripped of his voting rights and his capacity to run a business, and fined "a very heavy penalty" of 100,000 marks.He died in 1948 but his business survived.

In 1997, the company appeared in a list of Swiss dormant accounts in connection with reparations lawsuits, which stirred the publication of articles highlighting the involvement of Hugo Boss with the Nazis. In 1999, American lawyers filed lawsuits in New Jersey, on behalf of survivors or their families, for the use of forced workers during the war. The company did not comment on these lawsuits but reiterated an earlier statement that it would "not close its eyes to the past but rather deal with the issues in an open and forthright manner". It sponsored research by German historian Elisabeth Timm.Nevertheless, after Timm told the press of her findings, the company declined to publish them. In December 1999, an agreement was reached between the German government and a group of American class-action lawyers, Jewish groups, and the United States government to set a $5.1 billion fund, financed equally by German industry and the German government, to compensate slave laborers used by the Germans in World War II Hugo Boss agreed to participate in this fund,for an amount which was estimated by some sources to be "about € 752 000"

As a result of the ban on his being in business, Boss's son-in-law Eugen Holy took over the ownership and running of the company. After a period supplying work uniforms, in 1950 the company received its first order for men's suits, resulting in an expansion to 150 employees by the end of the year. By 1960 the company was producing off-the-peg suits, and in 1969 Eugen retired to leave the running of the firm to his sons Jochen and Uwe, who began the international development. In 1970 the first Boss branded suits were produced, with the brand becoming a registered trademark in 1977. This was followed by the start of the company's long association with motorsport, sponsoring Formula1 driver Nikki Lauda, and later the McLaren Racing team.

In 1984, the first Boss branded fragrance appeared, which gained the required growth spurt for the company to list on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange the following year. In 1986 it entered the world of golf by sponsoring Bernhard Langer, in 1987 tennis by sponsoring the Davis Cup, and in 1989 launched its first licensed sunglasses. In 1989, the company was bought by a Japanese group.

After the Marzotto textile group acquired a 77.5% stake for $165 million in 1991, the Hugo and Baldessarini brands were introduced in 1993. In 1995 the company launched its footwear range, the first in a now fully developed leather products range across all sub-brands. A partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was launched in 1995, resulting in the Hugo Boss Prize, an annual $100,000 stipend in modern arts presented since 1996. In the same year, the first license was agreed for the launch of the Boss Black watch range.

In 1991, the Marzotto textile group acquired a 77.5% stake for $165 million. Marzotto spun off its fashion brands into the newly created Valentino Fashion Group in 2005, which in 2007 it sold to Permira private equity group. Permira owns its majority shareholding in the Hugo Boss Group via Red & Black Holding GmbH (56%), with 42% of the shares floated on MDAX and the residual 2% held by the company itself.