Schörghuber’s widow takes over
Will history repeat itself? In 1805, a French woman, widowed at the age of 27, takes over her late husband’s wine business in the wake of the French Revolution. She guides it through the turbulent times of the Napoleonic Wars, pioneers efficiencies in champagne production and becomes filthy rich and famous in the process. Who is she? Step forward, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, better know as La Veuve Clicquot. The widow Clicquot to this day has a luxury champagne label named after her.
Nothing of the kind is probably going to happen to Mrs Schörghuber, if she has a say in it. By all accounts, Mrs Schörghuber is a very private and self-effacing mother of three. Although her husband’s death forced her to accept operational responsibilities for the group whose interests in beverages, hotels, aircraft leasing and real estate development result in a turnover of an estimated EUR 1.7 billion and a workforce of 6000 people, Mrs Schörghuber soon must have realised that being CEO of the Schörghuber Group was not her cup of tea. And why should it be? Just because you own the place does not mean that you cannot have external managers to run it.
Many ill-meaning media pundits thought she was pursuing an amateurish zig-zag course when, only three weeks after her officially resuming responsibilities, Schörghuber Group, out of the blue, announced that her late husband’s trusted erstwhile executive Dr. Klaus Naeve, 58, would become CEO of Schörghuber Group while Mrs Schörghuber was to become chair of the Schörghuber Foundation.
That put the rumour mill into overdrive: Schörghuber Group was in trouble. The current economic crisis doing its bit – and the sale of Schörghuber’s beer investment, Brau Holding International, to Heineken seemed imminent. Heineken has been Mr Schörghuber’s partner since 2001.
In 2007 Brau Holding International had an output of 11.6 million hl of beer and a turnover of about EUR 800 million.
Schörghuber Group deftly denied any sales rumours. Instead, Dr Naeve, a lawyer and tax consultant, who had worked for Mr Schörghuber between 1995 and 2003 in various executive positions before setting up his own business consultancy, was brought back into the fray by Mrs Schörghuber to become CEO of the group. Mr Schörghuber’s CFO, Hans-Peter Hoh will maintain his post, yet focus more strongly on his tasks as CEO of Brau Holding International. The executive committee of currently two is to be doubled to four.
At Brau Holding International Mr Hoh has plenty of work to do. According to an internal memo that was leaked to the press, Mr Hoh plans to improve the efficiency of each brewery and centralise important functions concerning acquisition, sales and marketing while maintaining the brewing group’s image of a tradition-honouring company with a wide range of regional brands.
This indicates that the integration of the various breweries that have been acquired by Brau Holding over the years has not progressed very far.
Brau Holding International, in which Schörghuber Group has a 50.1 percent stake, comprises Paulaner, Kulmbacher and Karlsberg as well as the Fürstenberg and Hoepfner breweries.
Plans for the future include a closer collaboration with Schörghuber’s Dutch partner Heineken, who has a 49.9 percent stake in Brau Holding International. What can this mean? Is Heineken finally going to push the Paulaner wheat beer brand through its network? Many observers had thought that this was one of the reasons why Heineken had bought into Brau Holding International in the first place – taking Paulaner wheat beer international – yet were surprised to learn that Heineken chose the Austrian wheat beer brand Edelweiss instead.
Relations between Heineken and Schörghuber have often been strained. Albeit they have never reached breaking point. This is why Mrs Schörghuber may have felt compelled to deny any rumours of an imminent disposal of the beverage division most strongly.
Despite the many challenges, Schörghuber Group apparently intends to further strengthen its position in Germany to allow for new co-operations or even acquisitions in the medium run.
