Mohr Morawa Buchvertrieb GmbH

What Mohr Morawa Buchvertrieb GmbH does

Mohr Morawa Buchvertrieb GmbH is Austria's largest book wholesaler and distribution services provider, headquartered at Sulzengasse 2, 1230 Vienna. Formed in 1992 through the merger of predecessor companies Morawa (founded 1877) and Mohr ZG (founded 1889), the company today serves as the central logistics interface between approximately 700 publisher partners and roughly 3,000 retail points in Austria and South Tyrol (Italy). The customer base spans traditional bookstores (220 in Vienna and 550 across other Austrian federal states), specialist and Nebenmarkt retailers (380 in Vienna and 1,450 elsewhere), and Trafiken (tobacco shops selling books and periodicals).

The operating platform combines a 22,300 m² main warehouse with a 4,000 m² secondary facility opened in Hacking (Vienna 14th district) in July 2023, totaling 27,000 m² of hall area, a 1,400m fully automated commissioning line, high-bay storage for approximately 13,000 pallet spaces, and 70,000 linear meters of hand-shelf storage. The company holds 8.6 million books in stock across roughly 200,000 titles and processes about 17 million items (8,000 tonnes) per year, with a stated 24-hour delivery guarantee throughout Austria. Order management runs on the VAS.5 ERP system from MSH Medien System Haus (implemented December 2021), with electronic orders flowing through the B2B Webshop (relaunched June 2021) and standardized KÖBU/IBU integrations for retail-side inventory systems.

The business model is dual-sided: a fee-based distribution services revenue stream from publishers (Auslieferung, Barsortiment, warehousing, marketing support, returns, and export handling) and a transaction-based book wholesale revenue stream from retailers (consolidated catalog ordering with guaranteed 24-hour delivery). Pricing for publisher services is individually negotiated; retail pricing follows Austrian Buchpreisbindung (fixed book price regulation). A bar assortment offering (MoMo-Bestellservice, established 2016 in partnership with German wholesaler Libri) gives Austrian retailers access to the German catalog through the same ordering platform. The company is privately held (GmbH) under the Morawa Group, with Wolfgang Rick as controlling shareholder, and operates with approximately 240 employees across logistics, sales, and operations.

Name

Mohr Morawa Buchvertrieb GmbH

Legal name

Mohr Morawa Buchvertrieb GmbH

Website

https://mohrmorawa.at

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Mohr Morawa Buchvertrieb GmbH is Austria's largest book wholesaler and distribution services provider, operating a 27,000 m² logistics platform that connects 700 publisher partners with roughly 3,000 retailers across Austria and South Tyrol via consolidated ordering, automated warehousing, and 24-hour delivery.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Book Wholesale & Distribution Services

NAICS

Book, Periodical, and Newspaper Merchant Wholesalers (424920)

akta.pro primary industry

Book Trade Wholesale (Print Books) (CRAOALAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Book & Periodical Wholesalers (Trade Distribution) (MPAJAKAA)

Keywords

• Book wholesale distribution
• Publisher distribution services
• Book logistics fulfillment
• Retail book supply
• Warehouse distribution services

Headquarters

HQ city

Vienna

HQ country

Austria

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Book Distribution Services for Publishers: Fee-based distribution and logistics services for publishers including warehouse storage, order fulfillment, and delivery to retailers. Services include publisher delivery, barsortiment, catalog & advertising shipping, review shipping, direct customer management, subscription management, and export handling.
2. Book Wholesale to Retailers: Wholesale book supply to bookstores, specialist retailers (Fachmärkte), and Trafiken across Austria and South Tyrol. Orders processed through B2B Webshop, automated KÖBU/IBU systems, or direct hotline.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Mohr Morawa operates as Austria's most modern book wholesaler and distribution company, serving as the central interface between 700 publishers (Verlage) and approximately 3,000 retailers (bookstores, specialist retailers, and Trafiken) across Austria and South Tyrol. The company provides consolidated book distribution services, bar assortment (Barsortiment) services, warehousing across 27,000 m² of hall space with 8.6 million books in stock, and a B2B ordering platform — delivering books within 24 hours across Austria.

Product overview

Mohr Morawa operates as Austria's most modern book logistics and wholesale company, functioning as a single unified platform for book distribution rather than a modular system. The core offering combines publisher distribution services with bar assortment services through integrated channels: the B2B Webshop platform serves as the central ordering interface, supplemented by KÖBU/IBU electronic ordering integration and the MoMo-Bestellservice partnership with Libri for German book access. Supporting services include warehouse storage (8.6 million books across 22,300 m² facility), key account management, sales representative services, marketing support, school book services, and logistics/delivery with guaranteed 24-hour delivery across Austria.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Publisher Distribution Services (Auslieferung) Full distribution services for publishers including warehouse storage, order fulfillment, and delivery to retailers across Austria and South Tyrol. Services include catalog and advertising shipping, review shipping, direct customer management, subscription handling, and export shipment processing. Targeted at book publishers (Verlage) seeking outsourced logistics.
• Barsortiment (Bar Assortment Services) Comprehensive bar assortment service offering retailers access to a wide range of titles from multiple publishers (8.6 million books in stock, 200,000 titles, 52,000 new publications annually) for efficient inventory management and consolidated ordering.
• B2B Webshop Online 24/7 B2B ordering platform for book retailers providing access to the full Mohr Morawa distribution catalog and the MoMo Bestellservice bar assortment. Features include order history, detailed search, supplier selection, quick entry with upload function, scheduled orders, continuations, and document archive.
• MoMo-Bestellservice (Libri Partnership) Full bar assortment service operated in partnership with German book wholesaler Libri, providing Austrian retailers access to the German book catalog alongside the domestic Mohr Morawa assortment via a single ordering interface.
• Key Account Management Personal on-site customer support for major publisher and retail accounts with dedicated account managers acting as the liaison between publishers and book retailers across Austria and South Tyrol.
• Sales Representative Services Regional mobile field sales teams (Vertreterteam Ost for East Austria and Vertreterteam West/Südtirol for West Austria and South Tyrol) using electronic data capture systems to provide real-time information to publishers and retailers.
• Publisher Marketing Services Annual highlight catalogs, publisher preview catalogs, sales promotion for individual titles, and event organization to support publisher marketing reach into the Austrian book trade.
• Warehouse and Storage Services 22,300 m² of warehouse space across 3 levels with 16 commissioning sectors, high-bay storage for 10,000 pallet positions, 70,000 linear meters of hand shelf space, and a 1,400 m fully automated commissioning line storing over 8.6 million items.
• School Book (Schulbuch) Distribution Services Specialized handling and distribution of school textbooks (Schulbuch) including dedicated ordering and delivery services handled primarily from the second Hacking facility.

Quantifiable outcome

• 17.1% revenue increase achieved through acquisition of Random House and Bonnier distribution rights
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• ESONO AGminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 October 2025ESONO AG awarded Mohr Morawa the Innovation & Partnership Award 2025, recognizing the company's digital innovation and partnership cooperation in the book distribution industry.
• MSH Medien System HauscoreTechnology or Integration · 1 August 2021Partnership with MSH Medien System Haus, established market leader in distribution software in German-speaking countries, to implement VAS.5 ERP solution. The comprehensive, future-oriented application enables optimal mapping of all Mohr Morawa processes with minimal individual solutions, while allowing coupling to accompanying internal and external systems.
• Libri (German Book Wholesaler)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016Partnership with German book wholesaler Libri to launch MoMo-Bestellservice, enabling Mohr Morawa to offer full barsortiment (wholesale stock) services by accessing Libri's German book catalog.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Lehmanns Media GmbH: Specialist academic and professional book retailer/wholesaler with B2B supply contracts across Germany and Austria. Overlaps with Mohr Morawa in Fachmarkt supply of specialized titles, but with a narrower, more academic focus.

Direct peers

• Umbreit GmbH: Independent German book distributor and logistics provider serving publishers and retailers with comparable Auslieferung and Barsortiment functions; structurally the same mid-sized wholesale model as Mohr Morawa but headquartered in Germany.
• Libri GmbH: Germany's largest book wholesaler and Mohr Morawa's explicit MoMo-Bestellservice partner since 2016. Operates the same barsortiment/Auslieferung model at much larger DACH scale; both sides of the partnership are also direct competitors for Austrian publisher distribution.
• Vereinigte Verlagsauslieferung (VVA / medienpartner): Long-standing German/Austrian publisher distributor operating consolidated Auslieferung and Barsortiment services with very similar service portfolio and customer base to Mohr Morawa, making it the most like-for-like competitor in the German-speaking market.
• KNV Zeitfracht GmbH: Major German book distribution group formed from the merger of Koch, Neff & Volckmar with Zeitfracht logistics. Direct functional overlap with Mohr Morawa across publisher distribution, barsortiment and freight in the DACH market.

Broad incumbents

• Thalia Bücher GmbH: Largest German-speaking bookstore chain and one of Mohr Morawa's downstream retail customers' main competitors at the consumer level. Tangentially comparable as a vertically integrated books retail/distribution player in DACH.
• Hugendubel: Established German book retail chain with growing e-commerce and B2B supply operations. Roughly comparable to Mohr Morawa as a downstream retail customer and adjacent as a vertically integrated bookseller in DACH.
• Amazon (Books, EU): Dominant online bookseller with its own fulfillment network. Indirectly comparable through scale, B2C web-shop sophistication, and logistics automation; primary upstream/downstream disintermediation risk to any traditional book wholesaler including Mohr Morawa.

Regional players

• Orell Füssli (Ex Libris): Swiss retail bookseller and book-trade service operator. Comparable business model elements to Mohr Morawa in Swiss/germanophone retail distribution and bookselling, though focused on the Swiss geography.
• Buchzentrum AG: Switzerland's central book distribution and barsortiment operator serving publishers, bookstores and Lehrmittel clients. Same business model as Mohr Morawa but operating in the Swiss market; relevant peer for benchmarking and as a possible cross-border extension reference.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mohr-morawa-buchvertrieb-gmbh

Compliance24 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mohr Morawa Buchvertrieb GmbH