Profile
Historie
1866: Company foundation and rapid development
In 1866, the brothers H.C. Eduard Meyer and W.D. Johannes Meyer founded their trading company Meyer & Co. in Hong Kong. Seven years later, a second company was founded in Tianjin, China. Under the private brands of GOLDEN DRAGON and BETWEEN NOVELS, the brothers sold a variety of products throughout the entire Asian region. By the 1880s, Meyer & Co Hong Kong, under the Chinese company name of Mee Yeh Yang Hong, had opened four further branches in Qingdao, Beijing, Shenyang and Jinan.
1877: The leap to Europe
In 1877, the business H.C. Eduard Meyer was founded in Hamburg. After marrying Ida Glitza in that same year, Eduard Meyer changed the family name to Meyer-Glitza. Six years later in 1883, a further branch opened in London representing the Far East company and the Hamburg firm.
The Asian market also continues to grow
Major expansions took place in the Asian region, too: in 1884, Meyer & Co. was the first German trading firm to start up a new office with a warehouse complex at the port in Seoul, Korea. The company successfully traded in hardware, dyes, needles, coin minting machines and amber. Within two years, further branches were established in Busan and Andong.
1886: Pioneering work in Korea and at home in Hamburg
In 1886, H.C. Eduard Meyer in Hamburg was appointed Imperial Korean Consul and held this office for two decades. In addition, in 1900, he was one of the founding fathers of the Hamburg-based East Asian Association, where he worked as chair of the “Chinese Commission” and fought for the interests of foreign companies.
1926: New start: Centralisation and renaming to Meyer & Co.
After the death of H.C. Eduard Meyer on 1 October 1926, the partners decided to centralise the imports and exports of all Far East Companies in Hamburg. This was done in that same year under the leadership of son Gerhard Meyer-Glitza, son-in-law Heinrich Frese and long-term partner Oskar von Gaza. Under the new company name Meyer-Glitza, Frese & Co., the business established itself in Hamburg’s inner city.
1953: Post-war economic realignment
The Second World War brought all the business activities of Meyer-Glitza, Frese & Co. to a halt. At the end of the 40s, after all the Far East companies had already been sold or discontinued, Gerhard Meyer-Glitza started rebuilding the company with his son Otfried. After his father’s death in 1953, Otfried Meyer-Glitza oriented the business increasingly towards trading in bike and moped parts, and from the mid 1960s, towards automotive spare parts, which are in especially heavy demand in the USA. Meyer-Glitza, Frese & Co became a representative for numerous OEM lines, which still make up the company’s core business to this day.
1970s: Further expansion into international markets
In the 1970s, a good century after the company was first founded in Hong Kong, Meyer-Glitza, Frese & Co once again took the plunge into foreign markets and established itself on the African continent and in the Middle Eastern markets. The company developed over the course of the 1970s to become the main German supplier for European automotive spare parts in the commercial and passenger vehicle sectors.
1980s: Stable growth through consolidation and OEM contracts
Otfried Meyer-Glitza and his partners Dörte Sass and Hans-Jürgen Orbanke continued the company and took on further deals with renowned OE manufacturers in the 1980s. After the death of Otfried Meyer-Glitza in 1997, the company was continued with André Hamm as the new partner and managing director.
2000s: Successful market launch for the own brand ETG
After Hans-Jürgen Orbanke’s retirement, Alexander Struve became the new partner and part of the management board. In reaction to the changing requirements of the market, the private brand ETG – Engine Technic Germany, now known as ETG – your lifetime partner, was set up as a second income driver. The brand quickly developed into a reliable partner for high-quality products in the passenger and commercial vehicle sectors.
2015: Relocation to a new site
Not least due to the continuous growth of further sales territories and the incorporation of new product lines, the company opted for a forward-thinking new building: at the current site in Henstedt-Ulzburg, both the office and the logistics centre operate from a centralised location – a further milestone in the company’s successful history.