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HISTORY
The roots in paper, the wings from visions. Get to know us and our company history better - we will take you on a journey through time from 1877 to today.
1877–1950: FOUNDATION AND SECOND WORLD WAR
In 1877, the company was founded by Ernst Mayer as "Ernst Mayer Briefhüllenfabrik" in Heilbronn. Mayer purchased the company's first folding machine at the Paris World's Fair in 1878 and moved into a new building he built himself in 1883. Mayer invented the gummed letter seal and a branch office was opened in Dresden in 1909. In 1918 the company name was "Ernst Mayer - Briefhüllen, Trauer-, Papierausstattungen". With the introduction of rotary machines in the 1920s, production was expanded and in the 1930s the company employed a total of around 500 workers. On 4 December 1944, the entire production facilities were destroyed by British aerial bombs. The Dresden branch was nationalised as a state-owned enterprise after 1945. Mayer's sons, Alfred and Erich, received the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1952 for the rapid reconstruction of the company after the war ended.
1960–2000: DEVELOPMENT AND EXPANSION
In the 1960s and 1970s, around 100 machines were in use in Heilbronn on 8000 m². These processed about 4000 t of paper annually and produced an annual output of about 400 million envelopes. At the end of the 1970s, Mayer had 200 employees and 9 independent agencies. In the 1980s, the company went into the red in the competition for envelopes. In 1983, the Swedish paper processing group Ljungdahls bought 80% of the company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, and transferred 26% of it to Edlef Bartl. Bartl took over 100% of the company in 1984, after the announced aid from Ljungdahls failed to materialise, and led it out of the crisis by expanding the product range and restructuring production and administrative processes. In 1986 Bartl founded BSB-Kuvert in Berlin with three web presses and purchased the competitor Lemppenau in 1989. In the same year, "Ernst Mayer" was renamed "Mayer-Kuvert". In 1991 the takeover of the envelope factory in Munich-Pasing followed and Bartl acquired the largest envelope manufacturer in the GDR, Torgau-Kuvert, from the Treuhand in 1992. In 1991, the new company building in Heilbronn was opened, uniting all production stages in one building. In 1992 the company expanded into the Czech Republic and by 1995 also into Romania and Poland, followed by Slovakia, Bulgaria, Ukraine ,Russia and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the later 1990s.
2000–2012: Mayer-Kuvert-network
In 2003 the company became Mayer-Kuvert-network. In the following years, the Mayer Group took over further companies in Europe: In 2006, two production facilities of Antalis Envelopes in Great Britain were taken over. In 2008, 50% of the Danish company A-Mail Kuverter and Herlitz PBS AG were taken over. In the same year, the competitor BlessOF, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, was added, followed by NC-Couvert in 2010. In 2011, the Mayer Group took over and restructured the insolvent French envelope company GPV Groupe, which was a supplier to the French postal service, among others. In 2012, the Mayer Group bundled the sales activities of its subsidiaries Mayer-Kuvert, BlessOF and Clausnitzer & Kupa-Kuvert into the sales company mayer-network.
from 2014: REALIGNMENT
In 2014, managing director Bartl passed away unexpectedly. At that time, the Mayer Group consisted of 50 companies in 23 countries with around 2400 employees, producing more than 21 billion envelopes, mailing and folding bags annually. Bartl's successor was Thomas Schwarz, who had already been appointed CO-CEO in 2013, together with a management team of eight.
Since 2017, a comprehensive reorientation has been launched, the "Mission 2020": Unprofitable production sites at national and international level were closed and existing sites consolidated.
Since 2022, Thomas Schwarz and Klaus Hennig have chaired the management of the Mayer Group.
