The Otto Group is the family-owned retail and services group that OTTO belongs to. It has its own brand: the lowercase „otto group" wordmark, the Optimist typeface, a warmer red and a palette of sand, aubergine and pastel tones. It has no component library and no public design system: its look lives in the corporate website, the annual report and the presentation master.
OTTO and Otto Group at a glance
| OTTO | Otto Group | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | the online shop and marketplace otto.de and the OTTO app | the holding group of OTTO, Bonprix, Crate and Barrel, Hermes, Eos and more |
| Domains | otto.de, otto.de/unternehmen (corporate and press), otto-newsroom.de, brandhub.otto.de | ottogroup.com, in German and English |
| Name | „OTTO" in capitals; legally Otto GmbH & Co. KGaA | „Otto Group" with two capitals in running text; the wordmark alone is lowercase |
| Logo | OTTO wordmark, bold italic capitals; redesigned 2015 (ErlerSkibbeTönsmann), red tuned 2022 | „otto group" lowercase wordmark and the „g" Superzeichen (o and g merged); introduced 1 June 2022 (Strichpunkt) |
| Red | OTTO red #EB001F (RGB 235/0/31, Pantone 185 C), at most 30 % of an area | Otto Group red #F00020 for rules, headlines and key figures; the wordmark file of the press package is #EE0020 |
| Typeface | OTTO Sans (Okay Type), OTTO Sans KO Black for display, OTTO Play for campaign headlines | Optimist (Newglyph): Light as the default weight, Regular and SemiBold |
| Headlines | heavy KO Black, red on light, white on dark | a red outline line and a solid line, sentence case |
| Grounds | white and grey, red for one strong moment | white and sand #F5F0E1 alternating, aubergine #4B3666 for openers |
| Accents | service blue and the modular palette; status colours only for states | yellow #FFF59B, lilac #E7DAF9, deep green #00483C, salmon #FFD2C8 |
| Graphic devices | colour blocks, 3D illustrations, the OTTO UP badge | thin red rules, red single-line illustrations of people, outline pill buttons on the web |
| Pictures | real products and rooms, bright lifestyle, the letter sculpture | layered, almost stock-like photographs seen through shapes and leaves; editorial portraits in warm light |
| Voice | „du", short and warm, the customer is the subject | „die Otto Group" in the third person, „wir" for values; formal and factual |
| System | the OTTO Design System: components, tokens, rules | a presentation master and the website; the corporate design manual is not published |
When to use which
If a customer can buy something, it is OTTO. If it is about ownership, finance, strategy, the portfolio or the group as a whole, it is the Otto Group. The two wordmarks never appear side by side as equal senders.
| Situation | Sender | Logo |
|---|---|---|
| Shop, app, customer email, product or service page, OTTO campaign, OTTO UP | OTTO | OTTO wordmark from the design system |
| OTTO press fact sheet, OTTO employer branding, OTTO Market partner material | OTTO | OTTO wordmark |
| Annual report, group strategy, group sustainability, bonds, commercial paper, investor or creditor material | Otto Group | „otto group" wordmark |
| Group-wide HR, values, Code of Ethics, group events such as the annual press conference | Otto Group | „otto group" wordmark |
| Content about another group company (Bonprix, Crate and Barrel, Hermes …) | that company, or the Otto Group when shown as part of the group | never the OTTO wordmark |
| Hamburg campus (shared site) | depends on the author; OTTO publishes a campus fact sheet with the OTTO logo |
What each one is
Otto Group
- Legal parent: Otto GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg. CEO: Petra Scharner-Wolff (since 2025). Chair of the Foundation and Shareholders' Council: Benjamin Otto.
- In its own words: „a globally active, digital retail and services group [...] represented by major company groups primarily in the three economic areas of Germany, the rest of Europe and the USA" (Annual Report 2025/26, p. 13).
- Vision „Responsible commerce that inspires" and Strategy 2030 with five priorities: „Inspiring customers", „Scaling and diversifying", „Increasing profitability and investment capability", „Creating competitive tech capabilities" and „Creating a culture of performance" (p. 3).
- Fiscal year: 1 March to the end of February.
OTTO
- The online shop and marketplace otto.de and the OTTO app, operated by Otto GmbH & Co. KGaA. The annual report calls it „the OTTO e-commerce platform", which also covers Otto Payments and Otto Finanzplus (p. 69).
- In its own words: „der größte deutsche Onlineshop".
- Sub-brands: OTTO UP (membership), OTTO Market (marketplace for sellers), OTTO Advertising, OTTO Payments, OTTO home (own home and living brand) and OTTO AI.
- The claim „Otto... find ich gut." returned as the central campaign claim in spring 2025 (p. 27) and is one of the logos in the design system.
Group companies
Selected companies from the corporate overview (p. 13), with segment revenue 2025/26 (p. 117):
| Segment | Companies | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | OTTO | EUR 5.6 bn |
| Brand Concepts | Bonprix, Crate and Barrel, Witt Group | EUR 4.8 bn |
| Retailers | Baur, Frankonia, Freemans Grattan, Limango, Manufactum, Otto Austria Group | EUR 1.6 bn |
| Services | Hermes Einrichtungs Service, Hermes Fulfilment, Hermes Germany, Otto International, SupplyX | EUR 0.6 bn |
| Financial Services | Eos Group, Hanseatic Bank (investment) | EUR 1.1 bn |
| Further | Headline, Project A (investments), Betterdoc, Medgate, Otto Group One.O |
About You was sold in 2025/26; since then the Platforms segment is dominated by OTTO (p. 69).
Key figures 2025/26
| Figure | Otto Group 2025/26 | Otto Group 2024/25 | of which OTTO 2025/26 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EUR 13.8 bn (+0.4 % comparable) | EUR 14.9 bn | around EUR 4.8 bn (+8 %), GMV around EUR 7.5 bn |
| EBIT | EUR 641 m | EUR 276 m | |
| Profit for the year | EUR 312 m | EUR 165 m | |
| Employees | 34,831 | 36,304 | around 4,900 |
| Active customers | around 42 million | 12.6 million |
Source: Otto Group Annual Report 2025/26, pages 2, 15, 81 and 117, and the press release of 28 May 2026; otto.de/unternehmen as of 28 September 2026 (annual reports and PDFs).
In this section
- Brand basicsWordmark, Superzeichen, red, sand and the pastel accents, Optimist and the footer rule.
- LogosThe Otto Group wordmark, the „g" Superzeichen and the logos of the group companies.
- PhotographyProfessional, almost stock-like photographs made artistic by layers: shapes, shoulders, leaves.
- VoiceHow the Otto Group writes: third person in reports, „wir" for values, formal and factual.
