History
Under the joint brand KIND4stores, 4 NWI shopfitting companies will appear on the European market from 2023.
Koenig Object Consulting GmbH our architectural office heads the design and planning expertise at the very beginning of any shopfitting process.
The hardware production is carried out with the high level of industrial manufacturing expertise at Otto Kind & Co. KG in Gummersbach and, under the direction of the experienced shopfitting professionals at HARRES Metall-design GmbH and ZOK-system s.r.o, is transformed from many single parts into a punctual, fully assembled shopinterior.
In this way, we can flexibly, competently and also economically attractive implement both the individual project or a large number of branch facilities for food retailers, drugstores, petrol stations, convenience stores, electronics markets and DIY stores.
Be it the roll-out for a POS presenter, the redesign of a store department or the complete re-equipping of a shop, KIND4stores is the shopfitting partner who accompanies the customer at eye level, even with ambitious expansion plans, without losing sight of the small details that make up good craftsmanship.
The roots of our companies gave rise to the corporate DNA that distinguishes us today and makes us so successful in close partnership with our customers.
Otto Kind,
Inventor of shopfitting
Born in 1868, he was the youngest of 8 siblings from a farming family in the region Bergisches Land. At the age of 17, he began an apprenticeship in a sheet metal factory and grew relatively quickly into increasingly responsible tasks. During his military service, he learned about new technologies such as the telephone and developed the business idea that would shape his life.
The grocery stores of that time often stored their merchandise in a cumbersome, unhygienic and untidy manner, so that some merchandise spoiled or became unsaleable. To this end, he developed storage systems such as food containers for storing and filling loose goods as well as paper roll holders with cutting devices. In the beginning, the goods were manufactured externally, but in 1901 he founded his own factory and started with six employees.
By the 1920s, his catalogue of shop fittings already had 182 pages. This led to the production of complete and custom-made shop fittings.
Today, at Otto Kind in Gummersbach, we manufacture shelving systems for large retail chains in the food and drugstore sector on a production area of 25,000 m² with highly automated machinery.
As early as 1346, the first blacksmith's shop was mentioned in a document in the Warstein region, which testifies to the long history of metalworking in this region. With the Wester, a tributary of the Möhne, a geothermally ice-free river was available all year round for the drive of water wheels, and the rich ore and limestone deposits made it possible to build up a coal and steel industry at an early stage.
On the foundation of this long tradition, Winfried Harres founded HARRES Metall-design GmbH in 2004 and focused on the production of shelving systems and shop fittings for food retailers. A highlight of the company's early history was the production and delivery of the largest roll-out for shop fittings in the German food retail sector.
HARRES Metall-design founded in 2004 in Warstein
We have continued to develop and professionalize this high level of competence for roll-outs of POS furniture or entire departments in discounts, both national and international.
In 2016, NWI took over HARRES Metall-design GmbH and in 2017, together with Otto Kind GmbH & Co KG, created the joint shop fittings brand HARRESKIND.
KOENIG Object Consulting GmbH
The Fichtenhain company campus was built in 1905 as a Rhenish provincial welfare educational institution for boys who are difficult to educate.
Today, KOENIG, the creative department of KIND4stores, is based here and continues the tradition of thinking out of the box.
KOENIG OBJECT CONSULTING was founded in 2003 as a general contractor with strong planning skills in shopfitting, and after being taken over by the NWI (Nordwest Industrie Group) it developed into an architectural office for shopfitting in the KIND4stores Group.
From simple floor plans to photorealistic 3D renderings, furnishing concepts for shops are developed here in close dialogue with the retailers. We intend to create stores with a atmosphere of well being and the longer the customers stay the more they will buy.
With 'Play and Plan', shelf models can be arranged on a floor plan until the best possible furnishing concept is found.
ZOK system s.r.o.
Zářízení Obchodů a Kanceláří, or ZOK for short, means 'equipment for shops and offices' in English – and the name says it all. In 1995, the two founders Král and Olšbauer took advantage of the new entrepreneurial freedoms that were offered to them in the Czech Republic after the end of socialism and started their own company in Havlíčkův Brod.
Her high level of personal commitment and, of course, a lot of passion for the business soon led to a rapid growth of the company and a concentration on shopfitting.
Havlíčkův Brod, 'Havlickuv Ford', is named after a prominent Czech writer, but until 1945 it was called Německý Brod, 'German Ford'.
With the involvement of NWI, production and process experience from Germany was brought back in 2020, soon making ZOK an important component of the KIND4stores Group.