Munich

"When, in January 1978, André Sacau joins Vuitton, the house has two shops, in Paris and Nice, and begins a franchise experiment in Munich. Immediately he realizes that things need to be done differently. Margins are made at retail, in stores. To make money, you need to own the shops. Vuitton, and this is an essential option, will never practice either licensing or franchising, but will develop a partnership policy in all countries by always maintaining control (51%)."

"I can only advise every young person: Learn languages! This is also why I like to think back to my student days, which began in Cambridge and Bristol and later took me to Paris and Montpellier. Academic learning, and of course a joyful student life, are valuable factors that I also enjoyed during my semesters in Munich, Tübingen, Heidelberg and Mannheim. But the semesters abroad in England and France also made possible the so important immersion in the native languages. It is pleasing that today's students almost obligatorily incorporate semesters abroad into their academic training. In my day and even decades later, this was still not a matter of course."

"His heir, Ulisse Cargnel, was the first to also make lenses in Cadore, and in 1900 the company he led was the only one in all of Italy to manufacture the complete glasses of any type of lens. Disguised as a journalist, Cargnel visited lens factories in Germany, in Munich and Nuremberg, and in France, in Ligny, where he studied the most advanced methods for production. He made the secrets of foreign competitors his own, massively increasing production thanks to a technological breakthrough."

"Rupert asked him to investigate the possibility of finding a master brewer in war-shattered Germany who was looking for a future abroad. Steyn set about his inquiries methodically. In 1947 he approached a number of contacts in Germany, asking them if they could put him in touch with: a Munich brewery willing to open a branch in South Africa controlled by South African shareholders; a Munich master brewer willing to emigrate to South Africa with his family and undertake the technical management of a brewery; and a master owner-brewer of a small Munich brewery who would come with his family and all the necessary machinery, to start a new factory from scratch. Despite interest from German brewers, nothing came of these tentative moves as there were problems on the South African side with the realisation of plans to establish a brewery. Steyn was requested to keep the German connection alive for some time, although with the warning that, as a brewery would have to be built up in South Africa from scratch, it would take at least two years before beer could be produced. Meanwhile Rupert concentrated on the tobacco industry."

""We have of course been following the reporting over the past years and have repeatedly asked ourselves how comfortable we feel with Signa," a board member of Signal Iduna tells in the autumn of 2023. In the end, the managers calm themselves down, saying that they have very little subordinated capital, very few profit participation certificates. Most of it is in mortgages and in a few senior bonds, he explains. It has always been important for Signal Iduna to be engaged in the prestigious locations and thus be properly secured. At the end of the day, the argument in case something went wrong was: then you would own the Alsterhaus in Hamburg, the Oberpollinger in Munich, the Elbtower in Hamburg and the Kaufhof in Hohen Straße in Cologne."