CS Group

In 1829 Carl Schmidt founded a business called Carl Schmidt Sohn GmbH & Cie to manufacture fine tableware of the world wide well known Solingen quality. In those days Solingen became famous for the tableware and knife industry at high level standards. After several years the company started to develop export markets next to their already substantial market share in Germany.

 

2 wars and the big after war depression lead to minimisation of the company and almost destroyed all its facilities, but the company survived these extremely difficult years. In 1948 the Schmidt family continued to serve customers even stronger in there old and in many new markets with the focus to sell the product ranges globally.

 

After the war the Kind family entered the management team of Carl Schmidt & Sohn followed by a management buy-out in 1952.

 

By the end of the 70s, the market became too competitive for local manufacturers to excel in every field. With clear potential to move the production step-by-step to the Far East Carl Schmidt & Sohn started to focus more and more to facilitate their production needs in China, Indonesia and Korea. These developments were opening up even greater opportunities like adding kitchenware and cookware to the core portfolio of cutlery and knives. This completed the lines of household products offered. The big variety in each of the product lines, combined with the steady high quality at German quality standards and European design lead to high customer satisfaction.

In 1990 the next Kind generation was introduced in the company in the name of Thomas Kind who added the necessary breadth of vision to grow the company on the one hand, and focus it on the other. A new name was needed to show the new focus, and it was decided upon to use CS as company and brand name. The new corporate identity with the CS® brand became an eye catcher in the world of household products and was a huge success.

 

The company decided to transform their operation to an international organised group of companies and expanded in the international operating CS Group. Consecutive it opened offices in Spain (1996), Cyprus (1997), Hong Kong (1999), Korea (2005) and China (2008).

 

Up from 2006 the company focus is on R&D and marketing of a growing range of products. A complete series of Rack-Job items to serve the supermarkets was introduced in the spring of 2006. In spring 2008 a special sales team to serve the China mainland was launched and logistic facilities to serve our distribution partners expanded. Autumn/Winter this year we introduce a brand new storage line to extend the household range of products.