Specialist for money processing system solutions

1885-1920

How it all started

The history of HESS begins in 1885 in Frankfurt am Main when shoemaker Karl Scholl founds a company and starts selling shoemaking supplies, shafts, etc.. He noticed that although there was a great deal of interest in good shoemaking tools, the standard tools on the market were far below expectations. And so he decided to buy tools and then optimize them and adapt them to the wishes of his customers. The success proves Karl Scholl right. The company grew and set up its own workshop in Egelsbach. After his death in 1919, his eldest daughter, Anna Scholl, and her husband Richard Hess Sr. took over the business and moved the company headquarters to Magstadt.

1920-1959

Success through creativity

Despite the difficult post-war period, Richard Hess Sr. pushes ahead with in-house production and develops special equipment for the modern shoe gluing process. He is honored with numerous awards for his innovations and makes the company known nationwide. The Second World War brings new challenges: Production is reorganized and daughter Anni Hess takes over the management of the company with Richard Hess Jr. After the end of the war, the demand for shoe repair tools exceeds production capacity as materials are in short supply. In order to meet the growing demand, Richard Hess builds a new company headquarters in Hindenburgstraße. From there, shoe repair and shoe shine machines are exported worldwide. At the end of the 1950s, a new chapter begins with the introduction of coin-operated shoe shine machines: coin processing and self-service.

1960-1975

In the spirit of self-service

The shoe shine machines are joined by other self-service machines in the mid-1960s. The product range now extends from coffee and beverage machines to newspaper, ticket and food vending machines. In 1965, the focus shifted increasingly to coin processing, leading one year later to the founding of the subsidiary HESS SB-Automatenbau GmbH, under which the new product line “coin processing / self-service automation” was continued.

1975-1989

Entering the banking world

Money changers complement the self-service product portfolio, but at the end of the 1980s HESS once again enters new territory: with the MULTICHANGE coin changer, an unprecedented system for coin roll dispensing, the company establishes itself in the banking world and presents a microprocessor-controlled note and coin changer as a revolutionary trade fair highlight at CeBIT.

1989-2010

Business developments at the turn of the millennium

Coin roll dispensers and currency changers soon become part of the core product range and are sold worldwide “Made in Germany”. In addition to entering the banking world, HESS is also active in the healthcare sector. With hospital billing machines and patient telephone billing systems, the company also enters the field of automatic pay stations. In 1998, HESS is taken over by Gauselmann AG (now MERKUR.COM AG), first as a majority shareholder and then in 2001 as a wholly owned subsidiary, thus becoming part of the family-run and internationally active MERKUR.COM Group.

2010-2025

International approach

In 2011, HESS founded HESS Schweiz AG in the Swiss capital Bern. Just one year later, HESS Austria GmbH is founded, meaning that the HESS Group has been represented in the DACH region since 2012. Another year later, HESS and the US IT company NCR, one of the leading companies for ATMs and POS systems, enter into a partnership for a promising future in 2013. What initially began as a sales cooperation has developed into a global strategic partnership for all aspects of coin processing. Another milestone was the collaboration between HESS and the NASDAQ-listed technology company Diebold Nixdorf, which developed into a strategic sales partnership that continues to this day.