Store in the former Alleestra?e100 years: milestones and anecdotes
Reading time: 6 minutes - May 06, 2020 - by Melissa Stemmer
Once upon a time, 100 years ago... a passionate man named Fritz Koch founded his photography business on Graf-Adolf-Stra?e. A lot has happened since then. Changes have taken place in all areas of the company and photography. Today we look back on some of the anecdotes and milestones that have accompanied us since then.
1920 | Founded by Fritz Koch
Fritz Koch founds the "Foto Koch" store on Graf-Adolf-Stra?e, which is only 10 square meters in size.
1944 | Destruction and reconstruction on Heinrich-Heine-Allee
Following the destruction of the store in 1944 during the Second World War, Fritz Koch firmly believed in his business after the end of the war and reopened it. This time on what was then Alleestra?e, which today is none other than Heinrich-Heine-Allee in beautiful D?sseldorf... but not everything lasts forever and so he too had to hand over his responsibilities to someone else. The change of management took place:
1. May 1953 | Change of management to Erich G?rner
On May 1, 1953 Erich G?rner signed the contract with Fritz Koch. He already had experience of the trade and the associated manual work in the "specialized photo trade" through the "Foto G?rner" company founded by his father Oswald in Dresden in 1911.
The story of the lucky donkey is still told today: "That morning, the managers brought a donkey with them to celebrate the opening of the store. It placed a large pile in the middle of the entrance hall.". What can we say to that? This happiness lasts to this day!
1955 | Start of the mail order business
Erich G?rner recognized the value of the mail order business early on, which was added in the mid-1950s. Foto Koch thus became a pioneer of the mail order business.
The bright room of the laboratory in Grabenstra?e1973 | Relocation to Schadowstra?e and expansion of the product range: HIFI and video products
The premises on Alleestra?e became too small, so that 1973 a new store was found on Schadowstra?e. At the same time, the product range was expanded to include hi-fi and video products. Our former managing director Dr. Eckart G?rner continued to work on the product catalog with his colleagues. At first, everything was typeset by hand by the print shop and the team received galley proofs for correction. The first major improvement was that the article lists could be transferred from the IBM to an Excel program, which largely saved on typesetting costs. Newspaper advertisements and catalog pages were then created with a Mac. Before these primitive DSV-like lists, however, there were already catalogs that had more than 16 pages.
Dr. Eckart G?rner was very lucky in his early days (1978). After completing his studies, he took on the position of advertising manager at the age of just 27, for which he was understandably not yet prepared so soon after graduating. His interest in programming was great and he was fortunate enough to take a programming course in his final year of study, where he learned, among other things, the principle of the punch card base. So the lucky streak continued: thanks to Dr. G?rner's affinity, he was able to independently program the IBM system (as a side note: this memory was as big as a FIAT 500 back then!), which is the basis of today's data processing setup.
Saturday, August 06, 1983
The competition didn't sleep either: where today there are only one or two specialist photo retailers next to Foto Koch, there used to be over sixteen around Schadowstra?e. Here are a few quotes from a newspaper article in the Rheinische Post:
''Schadowstra?e - 'the hottest photo mile in Germany'.
it is in close contact with our 'longest bar in the world' and stretches from it to the Wehrhahn (...) you can press your nose against a shop window of precision optical instruments every few steps along the 'mile'."
Price changes were rare in those days, but not impossible! To give you an idea of what prices used to be common: 9x13 enlargements cost 19 pfennigs, which sometimes rose to 60 pfennigs depending on the competitive situation. These popular standard formats "showed how much competition determined the business and what progress technology was making. A good decade ago, a color picture still cost 1.20 marks."
Digitization was in full swing. It was time for another step!
By chance, Dr. Eckart G?rner met a software developer who had the right program for data processing. That was the starting point from which everything developed: invoicing, data processing and much more. Constant change! At the time, sales clerks resisted the "new" and did not understand why everything should now be written on a receipt. This receipt consisted of continuous paper and a pin. As soon as a sales assistant didn't tear off the slip correctly, everything was ruined. Our authorized signatory Stefan Schr?ter tells us that he had to get down on his knees in front of the customer to fix the problem in the dot matrix printer! The change continued, article numbers were developed, lists could be used and at some point the time came when everyone was annoyed when the technology didn't work and they had to do everything by hand again! This change also took place in photography:
Back then there were cameras, big and heavy, costing 2000 marks or more, plus memory cards worth 200 euros, where gigabytes were a foreign word. Unimaginable!
Facade 1972 - Alleestra?e
Facade 1973 - Schadowstra?e
Facade 2016 - Schadowstra?e1992 | Extensive expansion into an impressive specialty store
Here, too, the employees were reluctant to move with the times. They were only familiar with analog photography (remember the days of chemical mixtures and darkrooms? That's back in fashion today!) The move to digital photography came on in leaps and bounds and of course everyone was reluctant at first. But as it turned out: wrongly! At the beginning of the 90s, there was a major renovation. The store was extended: 2 floors, 1000 m? of sales area and 80 meters of shop window frontage.
1999/2000 | Off to the net!
1999 then came the big turnaround: the catalog, which was produced twice a year and sent to customers by post, now had a whopping 120 pages! It contained all the latest cameras, accessories and many other products with prices that remained stable throughout the year. Unthinkable today. The company continued to move with the times and created its first online store within a year. This was the company's first foray into the digital world, making "Foto Koch" one of the first in the industry. Back then, e-mail communication was nowhere near as good as it is today. Communication was mostly by letter, fax or telephone.
2008 | Opening of the Foto Koch Academy
The Foto Koch Academy opened in 2008. It is based on workshops, the Frame Club and now even photo trips.
2014 | Change of leadership: Dr. Eckart G?rner hands over the management to his son Thomas G?rner: Announcement, realignment
In 2014, the "foray into the entertainment sector", as Dr. G?rner calls it, had come to an end and Foto Koch took the next step towards becoming a modern specialist photo retailer under the new management of Thomas G?rner: A new design with a new logo was to be developed and the store was to be completely remodeled.
2015/2016 | Conversion and new online store
This change was crowned in November 2015 when the new store opened with an opening ceremony at the D?sseldorfer Fototage, the Foto Koch in-house exhibition, in Schadowstra?e.
2016 then came the new, upgraded online store that you are used to from us today. However, all of this is based on the first 12-page catalog and Dr. G?rner's affinity for the programming language. Looking back, it was a huge change that could only be achieved through a great deal of effort, ambition and passion.
The major renovation in 2015 - Photo: Markus Luigs
Photo: Markus Luigs
Photo: Markus Luigs
The new business
2020 | 100 years of Foto Koch!
2020 100 years! Yay! The fairy tale won't end!
Foto Koch is still shining. Change should not be seen as something negative. It holds many new opportunities and perspectives, which the company always keeps in mind in order to share and further develop the passion for photography with our customers. We would like to celebrate this...and a new step is also being taken here: due to the corona virus, the in-house exhibition is going digital: the D?sseldorf Fototage will become Online Fototage for the first time in May 2020.
A look into the future:
A small glimpse into the future, which we are all looking forward to with excitement. Thomas G?rner writes: "As photo retailers, we are experiencing the changes in photography at first hand. How photography will change in the next few years is uncertain. Perhaps digital photography will soon no longer be an issue or it will change so much through technical advances and innovations that we will laugh at today's "standards". We want to continue to enable our customers to express themselves creatively and will pass on the available possibilities to you with passion and ambition. As a modern company, we are addressing the issue of sustainability, which is gaining an ever wider audience in society. We are constantly working on how we can make our processes more sustainable, for example with our CO2-neutral shipping service, which ensures that our customers receive their goods safely and in an environmentally friendly manner. We want to continue to set a good example and are always committed to making improvements to our operational structures in order to make our contribution to a better future. What this brings us is always uncertain, but we can approach the things that come our way with courage and a positive attitude." With this in mind: Here's to the next 100 years!
