Company History
Experience and expertise
D&B Germany has a long and successful history to look back on. Now a member of the Swedish Bisnode Group, D&B Germany is part of the global D&B network, the world’s market leader in supplying business information.
Corporate milestones:
- 1841: Information on financial solvency was available only sporadically. This is why Lewis Tappan founded the “Mercantile Agency” in New York.
- 1849: John M. Bradstreet sets up a company in the same line of business in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the same year, Benjamin Douglass (formerly employed by Lewis Tappan) takes the reins of the “Mercantile Agency”. Four former US presidents worked for Benjamin Douglass – Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865), Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877), Groover Cleveland (1893-1897) and William McKinley (1897-1901).
- 1859: Benjamin Douglass transfers the management of the “Mercantile Agency” to his brother-in-law, Robert Graham Dun. Adopting the new company name of “R.G. Dun & Company”, the enterprise is expanding first in the US, and subsequently on a global scale.
- 1872: First German credit agency opened in Frankfurt am Main by Wilhelm Schimmelpfeng, with an additional office in Berlin.
- 1933: John M. Bradstreet merges with Dun & Co. to form Dun & Bradstreet.
- 1937: Schimmelpfeng acquires the German subsidiary of R.G. Dun & Co.
- 1949: Dun & Bradstreet establishes Dun Europa GmbH in Germany, with company headquarters being moved to Frankfurt.
- 1960: Dun Europa GmbH from now on operated as Dun & Bradstreet GmbH.
- 1962: D-U-N-S® (Data Universal Numbering System) Number introduced as a unique identification sequence for companies.
- 1984: Dun & Bradstreet acquires Schimmelpfeng credit agency in Germany.
- 2001: Changes in management call for realignment in corporate strategy, with classical D&B products taken to the Web. After studies demonstrate that the name used up to now is unsuitable for online sales, a decision is made to introduce a new worldwide brand – D&B.
- 2004: Some of the national companies – including D&B in Germany – are converted to franchise companies as a part of the global D&B network. D&B in Germany is acquired by Bonnier Business Information AB (BBI) in the same year.
- 2005: Swedish investment group Ratos AB acquires 70% of BBI, and therefore also D&B in Germany. The new Bisnode AB Group is now one of Europe’s largest business-to-business information suppliers.
- 2006: D&B in Germany is re-established as a member of the Bisnode Group under the D&B Germany GmbH brand name.