The company traces its roots back to 1868 when Theodor Wessel and Emil Vett opened a
draper's shop in
Aarhus under the name Emil Vett & Co. It was an immediate success and in 1871 moved to
Immervad where the Aarhus store is still located. In 1870 the company opened a shop in Copenhagen in rented space in the fashionable Hotel du Nord on
Kongens Nytorv where
Hans Christian Andersen had boarded from 1838 until 1847. The shop occupied an ever larger part of the hotel and the company adopted the name Magasin du Nord after it in 1879. In 1876 the two owners also founded a textile manufactury in
Nørrebro, Vett, Wessel & Fiala, which later moved to
Østerbro where it also produced textiles for furniture. The factory has now been demolished. By 1889, Magasin du Nord had taken over the entire hotel. It was demolished in 1893 together with a neighbouring building and the current department store building was completed the following year in a French
Renaissance Revival style to designs by the architects Henri Glæsel and
Albert Jensen. The executive architect was Olaus Mynster. The company opened branches throughout Denmark. In 1892, it had 50 stores all over the country and by 1906 the number had grown to 98. In 1911 the Th. Wessel & Vett branch followed in
Malmö. The company was listed on the
Copenhagen Stock Exchange in 1952 and the strategy was changed to having fewer, large department stores. In the winter of 1954, toy buyer Troels Petersen advised Gotfred Kirk Kristiansen from Lego Group that he gather the "cut-and-dried" individual toys they had been making into a larger "play system". Magasin du Nord took over its competitor
Illum in 1991 but it was sold to
Merrill Lynch in 2003. The company was controlled by Emil Vett's until the mid-1990s. To reduce its debts after a period with economic difficulties, the company chose to part with its buildings at Kongens Nytorv, in
Lyngby and in
Aalborg in a
sale and lease back scheme. In 2004, Magasin du Nord was sold to an Icelandic consortium headed by
Baugur Group. Baugur went insolvent in Iceland and entered administration in the
United Kingdom in 2009, which ceded Magasin du Nord to
Straumur Investment Bank which subsequently entered into a joint venture with Pakistani businessman
Alshair Fiyaz under the name Solstra Holding, which bought back what had previously been sold. Magasin du Nord was acquired by
Debenhams in November 2009 while Solstra kept the 20% share of Illum and all properties. In May 2010, Fiyaz took full ownership of Solstra. In December 2010, he sold the properties in Lyngby, Aarhus and Odense to
ATP and PensionDanmark for an estimated price of DKK 1.5 billion, keeping only the flagship building at Kongens Nytorv. In September 2020, financially troubled Debenhams put its seven store Danish chain, Magasin du Nord, up for sale. In May 2021 the company was acquired by Peek & Cloppenburg KG, Düsseldorf. ==Department stores==