Carl Allers Etablissement A/S - Introduction

Introduction

Vigerslev Alle 18
Valby DK-2500
Denmark
Telephone: ( + 45) 36 15 20 20
Fax: ( + 45) 36 44 23 33
Web site: http://www.aller.dk

Private Company
Incorporated: 1873
Employees: 2,001
Sales: DKK 3.59 billion ($632.2 million)(2004)
NAIC: 511120 Periodical Publishers; 511110 Newspaper Publishers

Carl Allers Etablissement A/S is one of the Scandinavian region's leading media groups. The company focuses primarily on publishing its wide range of some 70 weekly magazines in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The company claims an impressive market share, with more than 70 percent of the weekly market in Denmark, around 80 percent in Sweden, more than 50 percent in Norway, and, in Finland, its youngest market, 26 percent. Allers' Danish publications include the television listings magazines Se og Hor (circulation of 215,000) and Billed Bladet (183,000), the women's weekly Femina and the family-oriented Familie Journalen, as well as a variety of special interest titles, including Antik og Auktion, Cross Words, Fiction, and Mad og Bolig. In Sweden, the company's top-selling titles include Hemmets Journal, Allers (a localized version of Familie Journalen), Hemmets Veckotidning, and Aret Runt, the women's titles Allas Veckotidning and Svensk Damtidning, as well as the television listings weekly Se og Hor. Allers top-selling titles in Norway include localized versions of its flagship publications, including Allers, KK (the Norwegian version of Femina) and Se og Hor, as well as other strong-selling titles such as MAG and Norsk Golf. Allers entry into the Finnish market came about in 1992. The company's main title in that country is the television listing weekly 7Päivää. Allers also operates a range of Web sites supporting its magazine titles in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. In addition to its family-oriented titles, Allers has also established a business-to-business operation, buying up several companies in the early 2000s. Carl Allers Etablissement remains tightly controlled by the founding Aller family. In order to provide a degree of liquidity for its shareholders, the company sold a portion of its B class shares to Rella Holding A/S, a company created and listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1991 as a vehicle for this purpose.