# WEPA ## Facts | | | |---|---| | Founded | 1883 | | Origin | Germany | | Headquarters | Hillscheid | | Owner | WEPA Apothekenbedarf GmbH & Co KG | | Status | Active | | Previous names | Paulus & Thewalt, WEPA Paulus & Thewalt − Georg Wenderoth GmbH & Co., WEPA Paulus & Thewalt GmbH & Co. | | Distribution | Pharmacy | | Website | https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/ | WEPA is a German pharmacy brand, best known in its consumer form as "WEPA – Die Apothekenmarke" ("WEPA – the pharmacy brand"), an umbrella for over-the-counter health and body-care products sold only through pharmacies. Its range runs from hot-and-cold compresses and the menthol-and-camphor muscle rub WEPA Pferdesalbe to nasal rinses, plasters, disinfectants, health baths, supplements and hot lemon drinks. The brand belongs to WEPA Apothekenbedarf GmbH & Co KG, a family-owned pharmacy supplier based in Hillscheid in the Westerwald region of western Germany. The company traces its roots to Paulus & Thewalt, a supplier of vessels and equipment to pharmacies founded in 1883 [6]; one trade-press report gives the year as 1882 [10]. The WEPA name itself dates from a 1957 merger, and the consumer umbrella was placed on all of the company's self-selection pharmacy products in 2020. Unusually for a consumer brand, WEPA sits on top of a much larger business-to-business operation that equips pharmacy laboratories, supplies packaging and services compounding equipment. ## Origin & founders According to the company's own timeline, Jean Paulus founded Paulus & Thewalt together with his brother-in-law Albert Thewalt in Höhr (Nassau), in the Westerwald region. Thewalt left the partnership shortly after it was formed, and the business stayed with the Paulus family. In an interview with the business magazine Wirtschaftsforum, WEPA's head of marketing, Raphael de Sá Almeida, said the firm was originally specialised in making clay vessels for storing remedies, and described this as the start of its expertise in pharmaceutical packaging [9]. A catalogue title from 1894, quoted in the company history, advertised the manufacture of all apparatus, vessels and utensils for pharmaceutical and chemical use, with its own painting workshop and kilns for glass and porcelain jars, and named the fitting-out of complete pharmacies as a speciality. Two dates for the founding circulate. The company's history page and the Wirtschaftsforum interview both give 1883 [6][9], while a March 2026 article in the German pharmacy trade outlet APOTHEKE ADHOC states that the firm was founded in 1882 [10]. This article follows the company's own date of 1883. The difference also shows up in how the company describes its age: its "about us" page refers to 140 years of German company history, while the brand's concept page uses the older phrase "over 135 years". ## History & milestones ### From stoneware to plastics Around 1900, rising demand and progress in medicine led the company to build new factory buildings, including production for celluloid goods, ointment jars and lids, as well as its own painting shop, kilns and print works. Between 1918 and 1930, Jean Paulus ran the business with his son August Paulus. The firm kept sample warehouses in Hamburg and in Nijmegen in the Netherlands, opened branches and, in the words of the company history, exported "to all countries". The same period changed what a pharmacy supplier actually sold. Vessels of clay, stoneware, milk glass and porcelain gave way to tin boxes and finally to plastic, and the company's hand-lettering of labels and jars later moved into a screen-printing department. In 1947 Wolfgang Paulus, a business graduate, joined as a general partner, representing the third generation of the family. ### The WEPA name The name that the brand still carries was created in 1957, when Paulus & Thewalt merged with Georg Wenderoth, a company from Kassel. The new firm took its name from the first two letters of Wenderoth and Paulus: WEPA Paulus & Thewalt − Georg Wenderoth GmbH & Co. The original Paulus & Thewalt KG continued as an independent printing company, producing pharmacy print work such as labels and bags. The partnership with Wenderoth was short. In 1960 the Wenderoth stock corporation left, and the business became WEPA Paulus & Thewalt GmbH & Co. In the 1960s the company pushed sales of ion exchangers after a change to the pharmacopoeia and built a plant to regenerate used resins. From its headquarters in Höhr-Grenzhausen it supplied 13 branches across West Germany, served by about 38 field sales advisers. ### Fourth and fifth generations In 1984 Dr. Axel Ciesielski, a great-grandson of founder Jean Paulus, became sole managing director. The company dates the launch of its packaging brand aponorm® to the same year; aponorm was built around low-germ packaging and carried trademarks of the Central Laboratory of German Pharmacists (ZL). APOTHEKE ADHOC's short company profile places the introduction of aponorm in the same year as the Wenderoth merger, though its wording is ambiguous [10]. The 1990s brought the first of the house brands aimed at pharmacy customers rather than pharmacists. Around 1993 the company introduced several products for the shelves and counters of pharmacies, among them PECTORAL® chest caramels, apoday® Heisse Zitrone (hot lemon), aponorm® blood-pressure monitors and mosquito® insect and parasite protection. Over the same years it built a high-bay warehouse in Hillscheid (1993), an administration building (1996) and a separate building for technical customer service (1998). In 2009 the fifth generation, Dr. Christian Ciesielski and Dr. Heike Ciesielski, joined the management. By 2013, according to the company, WEPA was active in more than 20,000 pharmacies in Germany and had expanded into Austria and France. That year it also opened the "Apothekenwelt", a 250-square-metre showroom pharmacy on its own site, used for training, idea development and concept work. ### Later projects Not all later milestones concern products. In 2016 it unveiled what it calls the world's largest ointment jar, a 2.5-metre lidded vessel made over three years in collaboration with the artist Gereon Krebber, which now stands on the company grounds. In 2017 its aponorm jars gained a data-matrix code for traceability, and in 2018 it developed the laboratory software apotec® LabXpert together with the partner pharma4u. The main step for the consumer brand came in 2020, when "WEPA – Die Apothekenmarke" was put on all of the company's products for pharmacy self-selection and display, a move the company framed as strengthening local pharmacies against competition [6]. In October that year the WEPA.shop online store gained a tool that lets pharmacies design their own promotional material, printed in the company's in-house print works. In January 2024 the company bundled its training courses for pharmacy staff into WEPA.school, which offers free live web seminars and e-learning. ## Ownership The company states that it has been family-owned since its founding [3], and its leadership has passed through five generations of descendants of Jean Paulus. It is currently run by Dr. Christian Ciesielski and Dr. Heike Ciesielski; APOTHEKE ADHOC names Christian Ciesielski as head of the fifth-generation business. The brand's legal owner is WEPA Apothekenbedarf GmbH & Co KG, headquartered at Hillscheid. Besides its administration, the company operates its own logistics centre with a high-bay warehouse and a print works in Höhr-Grenzhausen. It describes itself as a medium-sized family business with more than 350 employees and more than 8,000 products. APOTHEKE ADHOC reported in March 2026 that WEPA employed about 350 people and had most recently posted revenue of around 120 million euros [10]. The consumer umbrella is one of several brands in the group. Alongside it the company markets apoday® Heisse Zitrone, aponorm® blood-pressure monitors and packaging, mosquito® parasite protection, PECTORAL® and ApoLine. ## Philosophy & positioning WEPA presents itself as the pharmacy's own brand rather than a brand that happens to be sold in pharmacies. The company writes that with its products it stands, by name, for "the pharmacy's brand", and stresses that they are available in pharmacies. The stated aim of the parent company is to support local, bricks-and-mortar pharmacies with solutions matched to their needs. The brand's pitch rests on six points that it calls top quality, top selection, top advice, a fair price, high satisfaction and good recommendation. On its homepage WEPA sums this up as a considered range of good quality at fair prices, including advice from staff in the customer's local pharmacy. Its tagline is "Immer ein gutes Gefühl" ("Always a good feeling"). The concept page also calls WEPA a premium brand and says the company keeps working to expand it with the aim of maximum quality. The parent company's values page, "7 gute Gründe" (seven good reasons), carries the same message from the pharmacist's side. It describes reliability, honesty and trust as the principles of the business under the Ciesielski management, and calls its own brands "the key to market success", offering pharmacies good quality at a reasonable price. Behind this sits a network of field staff: the company says it employs more than 45 sales advisers and 30 technical service staff who visit pharmacies, plus 30 people in telephone customer service. The positioning also has a defensive edge. In the Wirtschaftsforum interview, de Sá Almeida described a German pharmacy market in which the number of pharmacies had fallen from more than 20,000 to about 17,000 since 2018, under pressure from regulation, costs and mail-order competitors such as DocMorris. He presented WEPA's role as helping local pharmacies stay competitive by combining digital services with the personal advice that online sellers cannot offer. ## Products & innovation ### The consumer range The concept page lists the segments of "WEPA – Die Apothekenmarke" as hot and cold compresses, Pferdesalbe, hand and surface disinfection, nasal douches and rinsing salt, a sea-water nasal spray, a saline inhalation solution, wart treatments, heat patches, a cooling gel, plasters, hot and cold drinks, food supplements and the Ätheria® health baths. The current product catalogue adds hyaluronic eye drops, children's baths and a large line of pill organisers, from daily boxes to seven-day magazines and tablet splitters. Most of the range is health care rather than cosmetics. The products closest to body care are Pferdesalbe, the cooling gel, the health baths and the hand disinfectant. ### Pferdesalbe The brand's flagship is WEPA Pferdesalbe, a muscle and joint rub whose name translates as "horse ointment". WEPA's product page says that active people and sports enthusiasts swear by it, and describes the formula simply: menthol cools, camphor and rosemary warm, and arnica cares for the skin. A "Gegen müde Beine" (for tired legs) variant adds red vine-leaf extract and horse-chestnut extract to rosemary oil, menthol and camphor. Pferdesalbe comes in tubes and tubs of several sizes, as a spray and, most recently, as a Roll On with an integrated massage roller that the brand homepage presents as new. The product page carries a "Dermatologisch getestet" (dermatologically tested) claim with a Dermatest seal. ### Market-leader claims WEPA makes prominent sales claims for its main lines. The brand says WEPA Pferdesalbe and WEPA compresses are the market leaders in German pharmacies, citing IQVIA's OTC Report for the twelve months to June 2024 [2]; the Pferdesalbe page repeats a "No. 1" claim based on IQVIA data to December 2025. In the Wirtschaftsforum interview, de Sá Almeida said the company's Heisse Zitrone and its blood-pressure monitors were also pharmacy market leaders [9]. These are the company's own claims, based on figures from a market-research firm it cites. ### Behind the counter The consumer products are only part of WEPA's output. The parent company's core is equipment and services for pharmacy laboratories and compounding. Its best-known technical product is TOPITEC®, a semi-automatic mixing system launched in 1998 that lets pharmacies prepare dermatological creams and ointments directly in aponorm dosing jars instead of stirring them by hand. The company says the change brought gains in pharmaceutical quality and speed. TOPITEC was followed by the AUTOMATIC (2002), TOUCH (2009) and EXPERT (2016) generations. Other services include the "Mein E-Rezept" app, which lets patients send electronic prescriptions straight to a pharmacy of their choice, and printed customer-loyalty items such as custom notepads and tissues. ## Recognition & press No awards are documented for the brand. Coverage comes mainly from the German pharmacy and business press. Wirtschaftsforum published a long interview with the head of marketing on the company's history, its digital services and the state of the pharmacy market. APOTHEKE ADHOC reported in March 2026 under the headline "Wepa wird teurer" ("Wepa is getting more expensive") that the company was raising the fees for its laboratory maintenance and service contracts with pharmacies from 1 July 2026, and used the occasion for a short profile of the firm [10]. ## Current status WEPA is an active brand. Its homepage cites market data dated January 2026 and promotes the new Pferdesalbe Roll On, and the parent company was the subject of trade-press coverage in March 2026. The products are sold through pharmacies, and the company lists operating addresses in Germany, Austria and France. The business remains family-owned and headquartered in Hillscheid. ## Timeline {#belagg-timeline} | Year | Event | Source | |---|---|---| | 1883 | Jean Paulus and brother-in-law Albert Thewalt found Paulus & Thewalt in Höhr/Nassau (Westerwald) as a pharmacy supplier. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1947 | Wolfgang Paulus joins as general partner, third family generation. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1957 | Merger with Georg Wenderoth (Kassel); the name WEPA is formed from Wenderoth + Paulus. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1957 | Paulus & Thewalt merges with Georg Wenderoth (Kassel), forming WEPA Paulus & Thewalt − Georg Wenderoth GmbH & Co. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1960 | Wenderoth AG exits; company becomes WEPA Paulus & Thewalt GmbH & Co. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1960 | Wenderoth AG leaves the company; WEPA Paulus & Thewalt GmbH & Co. formed. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1984 | Fourth generation: Dr. Axel Ciesielski, great-grandson of founder Jean Paulus, becomes sole managing director; packaging brand aponorm® introduced. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1993 | Further own brands for pharmacy self-selection/display introduced (PECTORAL®, apoday® Heisse Zitrone, aponorm® blood-pressure monitors, mosquito®); high-bay warehouse built in Hillscheid. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 1998 | TOPITEC® compounding mixing systems launched for pharmacy dermatological preparations. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 2009 | Fifth generation: Dr. Christian Ciesielski and Dr. Heike Ciesielski join management. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 2013 | Active in more than 20,000 pharmacies in Germany and expands to Austria and France; in-house showroom pharmacy 'Apothekenwelt' opens. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | 2020 | 'WEPA – Die Apothekenmarke' integrated on all products for pharmacy self-selection and display to strengthen local pharmacies. | https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ | | — | WEPA Pferdesalbe Roll On (with integrated massage roller) announced as new on the brand homepage (undated; homepage also cites IQVIA data 'Stand Januar 2026'). | https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/ | ## Signature products {#belagg-products} - **WEPA Pferdesalbe** — WEPA Pferdesalbe und WEPA Kompressen sind Marktführer in der Apotheke — https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/konzept/ - **WEPA Kalt- & Warm-Kompressen** — WEPA Kalt & Warm Kompressen: Quelle: IQVIA; IMS OTC Report®, Absatz, Markt: Traumapackungen, MAT 06/2024, Stand Juni 2024. — https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/konzept/ - **WEPA Pferdesalbe Roll On** — Neu bei WEPA und in der Apotheke: Die WEPA Pferdesalbe mit integriertem Massageroller für punktgenaue Anwendung! — https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/ - **WEPA Ätheria® Gesundheitsbäder** — WEPA Nahrungsergänzungsmittel und WEPA Ätheria® Gesundheitsbäder. — https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/konzept/ - **WEPA Heisse Zitrone** — Besonders beliebt sind unsere Heiße Zitrone und unsere Blutdruckmessgeräte – in beiden Bereichen sind wir Marktführer in der Apotheke und sehr stolz darauf. — https://www.wirtschaftsforum.de/wepa-apothekenbedarf-gmbh-co-kg/wepa-verlaesslichkeit-und-innovation-fuer-die-apothekenwelt ## Key ingredients {#belagg-ingredients} Menthol · Kampfer (camphor) · Rosmarin (rosemary) · Arnika (arnica) Source: https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/sortiment/muskeln-gelenke-bewegung/pferdesalbe/ ## Proprietary technologies & patents {#belagg-tech} - TOPITEC® Rezeptur-Mischsysteme (pharmacy compounding equipment of the parent company, not a consumer-product technology) — https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ ## Mentioned in {#belagg-press} - **APOTHEKE ADHOC (German pharmacy trade press)** (2026) — 25.03.2026 report 'Wepa wird teurer' on WEPA raising its pharmacy maintenance/service contract prices from 1 July; includes company background (Hillscheid HQ, fifth-generation management, ~350 staff, ~EUR 120m revenue). — https://www.apotheke-adhoc.de/nachrichten/detail/apothekenpraxis/wepa-wird-teurer/ - **Wirtschaftsforum (German business magazine)** — Interview with head of marketing Raphael de Sá Almeida, 'WEPA – Verlässlichkeit und Innovation für die Apothekenwelt' (company history, digitalisation, 'Mein E-Rezept' app). Publication date not shown; content references January 2024. — https://www.wirtschaftsforum.de/wepa-apothekenbedarf-gmbh-co-kg/wepa-verlaesslichkeit-und-innovation-fuer-die-apothekenwelt ## Sources 2. (T1) https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/konzept/ 3. (T2) https://www.wepa-dieapothekenmarke.de/ueber-uns/ 6. (T2) https://www.wepa-apothekenbedarf.de/ueber-uns/historie/ 9. (T4) https://www.wirtschaftsforum.de/wepa-apothekenbedarf-gmbh-co-kg/wepa-verlaesslichkeit-und-innovation-fuer-die-apothekenwelt 10. (T4) https://www.apotheke-adhoc.de/nachrichten/detail/apothekenpraxis/wepa-wird-teurer/ --- Glowpedia · · Published 2026-10-06 Please cite with a link to the article URL.