The Baus family founded the home improvement chain, Bauhaus AG. Carpenter Heinz-Georg Baus opened his first store in Mannheim, Germany, in 1960. Now headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Bauhaus is Germany’s second-largest home improvement chain, with over 270 stores in 19 European countries.
Heinz-Georg began the business hoping to capitalise on the trend of do-it-yourself and handicraft home improvement that became popular in the US in the 1960s. He expanded into Austria in 1972 and maintained a strategy of European growth over the decades by opening several international locations, including Denmark, Finland, Hungary and Turkey.
At the time of his death in 2016, Heinz-Georg’s net worth was estimated at $3.8 billion. Bernd Baus now heads the business his father founded.
Today, the independent German business magazine, Die Deutsche Wirtschaft, ranks Bauhaus as the 38th biggest German family-owned company in the country.
