The Reimanns still own more than 10 percent of Reckitt Benckiser, the Slough, England-based manufacturer of Durex condoms and Nurofen painkillers. They also own all of Labelux Group GmbH, which operates luxury retail brands Bally and Jimmy Choo, and Coty, which they bought in 1992 for about $440 million from New York-based Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drugmaker.
The Reimann fortune dates back to 1823, when Johann Adam Benckiser founded his namesake chemical company in Pforzheim, Germany. Five years later, chemist Ludwig Reimann joined Benckiser as co-owner. One of Benckiser’s heirs eventually ceded his stake in the company to the Reimann family after retiring childless.
Ludwig’s great-great-grandson, Albert Reimann, inherited the entire company when his father died in 1952, and added consumer goods such as adhesive cream and dishwasher detergent.
Fashion Brands
In 1981, Reimann hired Peter Harf, a former management consultant at Boston Consulting Group Inc. Reimann’s heirs appointed him chief executive officer seven years later. Harf leads JAB’s management team with Bart Becht, who serves as chairman, and chief financial officer Olivier Goudet. The three managers together own 4 percent of JAB, according to Tom Johnson, a spokesman for JAB at Abernathy MacGregor Group in New York.
JAB sold shares of Benckiser NV, maker of household cleaning products Vanish and Cillit Bang, on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1997. Two years later, the company merged with British consumer-goods manufacturer Reckitt & Colman Ltd. The combined company, Reckitt Benckiser, generated more than $15 billion in revenue in 2012.
Harf created the family’s luxury retail group, Labelux, in 2006. The company bought fashion brands such as Belstaff and Bally, and purchased shoemaker Jimmy Choo Ltd. in 2011 from private-equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners LP for about 550 million pounds ($916 million).
The Reimanns began investing in the hot-beverage business last year, buying Emeryville, California-based Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. for $941 million and Caribou Coffee Co. for $340 million. JAB agreed to buy Amsterdam-based coffee and tea producer D.E Master Blenders 1753 in April. The deal is expected to close later this year.
“It’s very tough to find any information about the family,” said von der Gathen in a phone interview. “It’s sometimes not even completely clear who belongs to the family and who doesn’t.”