“I did it my way!”
Hasso Kämpfe, Jägermeister’s CEO, who was in charge of turning the German bitter Jägermeister into a cool beverage for twentysomethings, decided not to extend his second five-year contract but to leave the company because, as he said, he wanted to do other things in his life.
There are not many CEOs around who can say that they left a company voluntarily at the height of their success. Hasso Kämpfe, 57, is one of them. To all appearances he did not suffer from a midlife crisis. Still, Hasso Kämpfe, the CEO of the privately-owned Jägermeister company took everybody by surprise when he announced in June that he would not renew his contract. Since taking on the role of CEO in 1998 he has transformed Jägermeister from a dowdy tipple enjoyed by male soccer fans in corner pubs to a cool beverage that “Sex in the City”-fans will enjoy in New York bars.
The financial year 2006 Mast-Jägermeister, which is owned by Annemarie Findel-Mast and her daughter, saw the sales of Jägermeister increase by 15 percent. Thus Jägermeister made it into Impact’s top 10 global premium spirits ranking. Selling 76.5 million 0.7-litre-bottles, Jägermeister was Impact’s number nine seller world-wide in a league with brands like Smirnoff and Bacardi. Revenues (excluding excise) rose 17 percent to EUR 312 million. Despite the fact that marketing and advertising expenses were up 20 percent, profits reached EUR 82 million, a plus of 19 percent.
As in previous years, Jägermeister’s success story was written outside Germany. The United States are Jägermeister’s most important foreign market (+16 percent in 2006) although party-hoppers in China too approve of “Ye Ge” as it is called there. International sales account for 74 percent of total. Jägermeister is sold in more than 70 countries, where 56.6 million bottles were emptied in 2006.
A search party has already been sent out by Mast-Jägermeister to find a successor for its departed CEO, Hasso Kämpfe. Mr Kämpfe, meanwhile, is said to be enjoying his sabbatical.
