Heineken, help!
When it comes to BHI’s CEOs, it’s been a bit like “here today, gone tomorrow”. Except involuntarily so, if you were to ask the CEOs in question.
There is no denying that BHI’s revolving doors have turned much faster than elsewhere, which gives rise to all kinds of rumours.
Unfortunately, the brewer’s PR seems unable to smooth relations with Germany’s media. So each time a top man is topped, hacks cannot refrain from asking the pertinent question: “Why?”
Admittedly, there are sound and plausible reasons why certain CEOs don’t fit in. But how often can owners err in their judgement? Or get away with always picking the wrong guy?
The first (in a long line of colourful characters) to go was BHI CEO Wolfgang Salewski. He was made to leave in 2006, although he had been a long-time confidant of owner Stefan Schörghuber, whose private holding owns 50.1 percent of BHI. Mr Salewski was succeeded by brewery owner Friedrich Georg Hoepfner. Having sold his brewery to BHI, he was made chief executive, even though he lasted less than 18 months at the helm of BHI.
Since then Mr Schörghuber and Mr Hans-Peter Hoh, 44, his finance man, were in charge, until last year when Mr Schörghuber, 47 retired to his supervisory board and Mr Hoh was made CEO. The sudden death of Mr Schörghuber in November set in motion a rochade, involving Mr Schörghuber’s wife and a host of advisors, which culminated in Mrs Schörghuber bringing back a former mate of her husband’s, Klaus Naeve, 58, whose re-investiture appears to have blocked Mr Hoh’s ascent to CEO of the Schörghuber Group, a business conglomerate ranging from beverages to hotels, airlines and real estate.
At the end of March this year, to everybody’s surprise, Mr Hoh chucked it all in, giving the standard explanation of seeking new challenges.
This in turn has led to all kinds of media speculation again – not least about Schörghuber Group’s corporate culture in general and BHI’s in particular.
As to the performance of BHI, which includes the Paulaner Brewery and the Kulmbacher Group, Fürstenberg, Hoepfner, Schmucker and a 45 percent stake in the Karlsberg Verbund, few details have been leaked to the press. Dr Kai Kelch, a market observer, estimates that the brewing group’s turnover was EUR 690 million in 2007. The group’s beer output has stagnated at 7.4 million hl since 2007. Schörghuber Group, the holding company, is said to represent a turnover of about EUR 2 billion. It employs 6300 people.
What has intrigued German media is that so far Heineken has refrained from talking to the press. But given the sort of media attention BHI has received, it is just as well that Heineken keep their lips sealed.
