Tempo is a German-origin paper-tissue and consumer-hygiene brand best known for its pocket tissues and facial tissues. Founded in 1929, it is widely recognised as the first German paper-handkerchief brand. Today, Tempo is owned by Essity, a Swedish global hygiene and health company, and is sold across various European and Asian markets.1

Essity currently lists Tempo among its major Consumer Tissue brands alongside Lotus, Zewa, Cushelle and Plenty.

1929: The beginning

Tempo’s history began in Germany in 1929. Brothers Oskar Rosenfelder and Emil Rosenfelder, who were associated with Vereinigte Papierwerke AG, developed the concept of a disposable paper handkerchief made from cellulose.

The Tempo trademark was registered on 29 January 1929 in Berlin. Essity describes this date as the point at which the Tempo paper handkerchief was patented or registered, marking the start of the brand’s history.

The concept addressed a practical problem: traditional cloth handkerchiefs required washing and ironing, whereas a paper handkerchief could simply be used and discarded.

The name “Tempo” reflected the spirit of the period, evoking speed, modernity and a rapidly changing way of life.2

1930s–1960s: Mass adoption

Tempo gradually transformed the paper handkerchief from a novelty into an everyday consumer product.

Historical accounts indicate that production expanded dramatically: around 150 million Tempo products were produced in 1935, reaching approximately 1 billion in 1955 and more than 4 billion in 1962.3

This growth helped establish Tempo as a household name in Germany.

1970s: Product design becomes part of the brand

A significant innovation was Tempo’s distinctive folding system. The company introduced a folding design that allowed the tissue packet to be opened with one hand, improving convenience and helping differentiate the product from ordinary paper tissues.4

Over subsequent decades, Tempo continued to introduce variations in fragrance, softness, strength, packaging and format.

2001: Acquisition by SCA

Ownership of Tempo eventually transferred to the Swedish hygiene and forest-products company SCA.

In 2001, SCA acquired the Tempo brand.5

SCA subsequently developed a substantial international Consumer Tissue business around brands including Tempo, Lotus and Zewa.

2017: Essity

A major corporate change occurred in 2017 when SCA separated its hygiene and health business from its forest-products operations.

The hygiene and health business became the independent company Essity, listed on Nasdaq Stockholm on 15 June 2017. Tempo became part of Essity’s Consumer Tissue portfolio.

Although historically associated with pocket handkerchiefs, Tempo has expanded its range considerably.

Its product portfolio may include:

• Pocket tissues / paper handkerchiefs
• Facial tissues
• Box tissues
• Wet tissues
• Toilet tissue
• Other consumer-tissue formats depending on the market

Essity describes Consumer Tissue as encompassing toilet paper, household towels, handkerchiefs, facial tissues, wet wipes and napkins.8

In China, for example, Essity and Vinda present Tempo products under the Chinese name 得宝, with categories including paper handkerchiefs, soft-pack tissues, box tissues and wet tissues.9

In Italy, Tempo also expanded into toilet paper beginning in 2010.6

Tempo’s central proposition has historically been the combination of softness and strength.

Rather than competing solely as an inexpensive commodity tissue, Tempo has generally positioned itself as a higher-quality, dependable tissue brand.

Essity describes Tempo in Italy as offering a combination of resistance and softness, while corporate material highlights the brand’s reputation for balancing softness with strength.6

This positioning can be summarised as:

Soft enough for comfort, strong enough for reliability.

This combination is particularly important for a tissue brand because consumers typically evaluate tissues on several seemingly contradictory characteristics:

• Softness against the skin
• Tensile strength
• Absorbency
• Thickness
• Resistance to tearing
• Portability
• Fragrance or freshness
• Packaging and appearance

Tempo has built much of its identity around resolving the softness-versus-strength trade-off.

One of Tempo’s most notable characteristics is that the brand name became closely associated with the product category itself.

In Germany, “Tempo” became so strongly linked with paper handkerchiefs that people could use Tempo colloquially when referring to paper tissues generally, including those made by competing brands. This is an example of genericisation, where a trademark becomes widely understood as the name of a product category.8

This phenomenon is comparable to how other famous brands have become everyday vocabulary in their respective markets.

It represents both a major marketing success and a potential trademark-management challenge: the stronger a brand becomes as a generic term, the more difficult it can be to maintain its distinctiveness as a trademark.

Tempo has traditionally maintained a highly recognisable visual identity.

The brand’s red-and-white packaging and distinctive Tempo wordmark have been strongly associated with German paper tissues for decades.

Essity notes that the Tempo lettering and packaging design remained largely unchanged from the 1950s until more recent modernisation efforts.6

From a branding perspective, rather than repeatedly reinventing itself, Tempo has historically used visual continuity to communicate trust and familiarity.

In 2025, Essity introduced a new look for the traditional Tempo brand, explicitly describing the redesign as an attempt to combine the brand’s long heritage with a more modern identity. Essity stated that the underlying values of trust, strength and care would remain unchanged.6

Despite being nearly a century old, Tempo has continued to introduce product innovations.

Examples include:

One-hand opening

The distinctive folding arrangement introduced in the 20th century made the tissue easier to open with one hand.7

Stronger tissues

Tempo has developed tissues designed to withstand greater mechanical stress. Essity has specifically promoted versions capable of surviving a washing-machine cycle if accidentally left in a pocket.7

Fragranced products

The brand has introduced fragranced tissues and products incorporating ingredients such as eucalyptus oil in selected markets.8

Wet tissue and other formats

Tempo has expanded beyond traditional dry handkerchiefs into wet tissue and other consumer-tissue categories.9

Tempo began as a distinctly German brand but eventually became international.

Essity identifies Tempo as a leading brand in several European markets and states it has a presence in countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

Its positioning can differ somewhat by market.

Germany

Germany remains one of Tempo’s most important markets. Essity describes Tempo as the market leader in tissues in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Italy

Tempo is described by Essity as one of the best-known and most highly regarded tissue brands in the Italian market, particularly for perceived quality.6

Hong Kong and China

Tempo has also developed a significant presence in Greater China. In mainland China, the brand is marketed as 得宝 (Dé Bǎo) and is associated with a premium tissue positioning. Vinda’s Tempo page describes the brand as a German premium tissue brand originating in 1929.4

Tempo’s Chinese name is 得宝.

The brand entered Hong Kong in 1997 and mainland China in 2009, according to Chinese reference sources.4

In China, Tempo has been positioned somewhat differently from its original German identity. It is often marketed as a premium lifestyle and tissue brand, with considerable emphasis on:

• Premium paper quality
• Softness and thickness
• Sophisticated packaging
• Lifestyle imagery
• Design
• Gifting
• Artistic and cultural collaborations

Vinda’s official Tempo page describes the brand as a German premium tissue brand founded in 1929 and notes its long history of sales in European markets and Hong Kong.4

China serves as an example of brand localisation: the same historical brand can occupy a different cultural position in different countries.

Today, Tempo is part of Essity AB, a Swedish multinational specialising in hygiene and health products.

Essity’s portfolio includes brands such as:

• Tempo
• TENA
• Tork
• Zewa
• Lotus
• Cushelle
• Plenty
• Libresse
• Libero
• Actimove
• Leukoplast
• JOBST

Essity reported approximately SEK 138 billion in net sales in 2025, with approximately 36,000 employees, and sells products in around 150 countries.

Tempo is therefore not an independent German tissue manufacturer today; it is a brand within a much larger global hygiene company.

There is an important distinction between ownership and local manufacturing/distribution.

In Greater China, Tempo is associated with Vinda International, a major Chinese tissue company. Vinda’s official website presents Tempo/得宝 as part of its product portfolio, while stating that Essity retains ownership of the Tempo brand rights.4

In simplified terms:

Tempo → brand owned by Essity → marketed/operated in certain Chinese markets through the Vinda/Essity structure.

This explains why Chinese consumers may encounter Tempo branding alongside Vinda while the ultimate global brand owner is Essity.

As part of Essity, Tempo operates within the group’s broader sustainability strategy.

Essity states its Consumer Tissue business is working on issues including:

• Reducing waste
• Reducing carbon emissions
• Sustainable materials
• Improving resource efficiency
• Optimising production and supply chains8

Tempo’s sustainability story is therefore best understood primarily in the context of Essity’s corporate environmental and sourcing policies, rather than as an entirely independent sustainability programme.

Based on Essity’s descriptions of Tempo, the brand can be understood through several recurring values:

Reliability

A Tempo tissue is intended to work when consumers need it, whether for a cold, allergies, emotional moments or everyday messes.8

Strength

Strength is one of the brand’s defining functional characteristics.

Softness

Softness is equally important, particularly because the product is frequently used on sensitive facial skin.

Convenience

The original disposable-paper concept itself was based on making the handkerchief more convenient than a reusable cloth one.

Innovation

Tempo has repeatedly modified folding, materials, strength, fragrances, formats and packaging over its history.

Heritage

Its almost century-long history is a major part of its brand equity.

From a marketing perspective, Tempo is a notable case study because it demonstrates how a simple commodity product can become a powerful consumer brand.

Paper tissues are relatively low-involvement products: consumers do not normally spend much time researching them before purchase. Yet Tempo has established strong differentiation through:

1. Brand recognition
2. Consistent packaging
3. Perceived product quality
4. German heritage
5. Long history
6. Product innovation
7. Premium positioning in selected markets
8. High mental availability

Its greatest asset may be that consumers do not merely recognise the brand; they can associate its name directly with the category of paper handkerchiefs.

The historical milestones above are based primarily on Essity’s corporate history and Tempo materials.3

Tempo is essentially a 20th-century German invention that evolved into a global premium tissue brand.

Its story is unusual because the product itself is extremely simple, yet the brand accumulated enormous cultural recognition. Starting with disposable paper handkerchiefs in 1929, Tempo helped establish a new everyday hygiene habit and eventually became so strongly associated with paper tissues in Germany that its name entered everyday language.8

Today, nearly a century later, Tempo is no longer a standalone German company. It is a major Essity Consumer Tissue brand, with products and positioning adapted to different markets around the world. In Europe, it retains its strong heritage and tissue-market reputation, while in China it has developed a particularly prominent premium/lifestyle positioning under the name 得宝.4

In summary:

Tempo = German heritage + nearly 100 years of tissue expertise + strong softness/strength proposition + premium positioning + global Essity ownership.

1. Esempi di marchi
2. 95 Jahre Tempo – Die Taschentuch-Ikone feiert seine Erfolgsgeschichte
3. Erfolgsgeschichte auch dank Essity-Werk Neuss: Tempo wird 90 Jahre
4. 得宝Tempo-德国高端纸巾品牌
5. Tempo (brand)
6. Traditionsmarke Tempo im neuen Look
7. Thương hiệu Tempo của nước nào? Đánh giá chi tiết có tốt không?
8. DeWiki > Tempo (Marke)
9. Thương Hiệu Tempo Chính Hãng, Giá Tốt | Pharmacity