Roland Tobias, President of InBev Germany leaves company
Until a successor will be found, Frank Steffens, off-premise Sales Director, will be interim president.
Roland Tobias joined Brauerei Beck in 1995 as Key Account Manager for Beck’s. After the sale of Brauerei Beck to Interbrew in 2001 he rose through the ranks to become Marketing and Sales Director of InBev Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He was also in charge of integrating all the German breweries which Interbrew bought subsequently – Diebels, Gilde, Hasseröder, Wolters and Spaten/Franziskaner/Löwenbräu – into InBev Germany. In January 2006 Tobias was named President InBev Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Tobias was not the first president of InBev Germany to leave at his own request. Dieter Ammer, who instigated and supervised the sale of Brauerei Beck, left in July 2003 to join a German retailer. He was succeeded by Michael Beck, formerly of Gilde Brewery in Hannover, which was bought by Interbrew. Beck lasted no more than 18 months before he had to vacate his seat for Alain Beyens, formerly of Interbrew Belgium. Beyens left only a year later when he was promoted to InBev’s Executive Board of Management in charge of central and eastern Europe. Beyens’ successor was Tobias who managed to cling on to his job for a year. Now what does all this tell us? That being InBev’s German boss man is like sitting on an ejector seat? Small wonder, Interbrew in 2001 paid an extravagant EUR1.8 billion for Brauerei Beck, which was Germany’s number four brewer with with annual sales estimated at about EUR 850 million (USD 752 million) and a beer output of 5.5 million hl.
