had been the general manager of Höfner for many years, with his wife Ulrike Schrimpff, the finance director at Höfner along with Rob Olsen and Graham Stockley who were USA and UK partners. Klaus Schöller and Ulrike Schrimpff remain as the owners of the business today. Distribution Europe The Höfner company has nearly always been responsible for its own distribution within Europe. The exceptions to this have been: The Netherlands where the distributor in the 1950s and 1960s was the Van Wouw company (which closed in the 1970s) Spain where the distributor is Keller The United Kingdom, in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s Höfner instruments were distributed by Selmer of London (not to be confused with The Selmer Company). In the mid-1990s Höfner became part of the Boosey & Hawkes Group and UK distribution was taken over by them until the sale of Höfner in 2004 when distribution switched to GNC, a company formed by Graham Stockley and Clive Guthrie. Today electric guitars are distributed by Barnes and Mullins while classical guitars and stringed instruments are still distributed by Clive Guthrie. United States EMMC based in NJ was the distributor for bass guitars for many years until Boosey & Hawkes bought Höfner in 1994. Boosey & Hawkes took over distribution from 1995 to 2003. During these years the improvements of quality and brand exposure were significant. The overall bass and guitar lines were redesigned and new successful 6-string jazz guitar models were created and introduced in late 1999. The Music Group, a Venture Capital Company took over Boosey & Hawkes from 2003 until 2004 when the Höfner company was purchased via a management buyout. In 2005, Höfner's United States distribution was picked up by Classic Musical Instruments (CMI) in Kenosha, WI. CMI ceased trading in 2012 and distribution passed to Musical Distributors Group (MDG) in New Jersey. In late 2018 MDG merged with Adam Hall North America and is the current USA distributor. Rob Olsen - 1998–current: Rob Olsen worked at Boosey & Hawkes as Höfner Product Manager in late 1998 and remains responsible for USA distribution for Adam Hall. He designed or co-designed, with Klaus Schoeller and Graham Stockley, many key Höfner models, managed overall quality, and increased visibility of the company (especially from 1998 to 2012). Rob Olsen era Höfner models include: HAS acoustic series, Jazzica Custom, Verythin Classic, The New President, The Vice President, Verythin Standard,