Heiken to promote Hellman's successful development as CEO
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has announced that Reiner Heiken will take over the position as CEO of Hellmann in order promote the further successful development of the company, following a major restructuring of the group.
Under the leadership of restructuring specialist Dr. Thomas Knecht as CEO and CRO as well as Jost Hellmann as CCO, the Hellmann executed a comprehensive restructuring program, which saw the establishment of three business units with clearly defined strategic objectives, the change of legal form to an SE and an extremely comprehensive structural, financial and performance-related realignment of the global Hellmann Group.
Hellmann also refinanced its debt, resulting in a multi-year loan agreement with a stable banking syndicate.
In 2017, Hellmann achieved sales of 8% to EUR 2.5 billion and in EBT of 37% to EUR 22.2 million. Overall, the Group generated total sales of over EUR 3.2 billion (+ 7% compared to the previous year).
Dr. Knecht will now hand over the management of the Hellmann Group to Reiner Heiken, who will take over the position as CEO of Hellmann on December 1st, 2018.
Heiken is a described as an experienced manager and an expert in all logistics sectors from air and sea freight, contract logistics to rail and road transport.
He formerly held management positions at Kühne + Nagel and most recently at Schenker with more than twenty years of experience.
With the arrival of Heiken at Hellmann, the appointment of a new Management Board has been successfully completed. Dr. Michael Noth (formerly CFO of Nordzucker AG) was appointed to the CFO position on August 1st, 2018.
Jost Hellmann will retire from his position as Chief Commercial Officer at the end of the year.
As a result, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics will be managed from the beginning of 2019 by a management board consisting exclusively of external managers.
However, the global logistics company will continue to benefit from the full support of the two family representatives Jost and Klaus Hellmann.
The two shareholders will each continue to be represented directly or indirectly with one vote on the Supervisory Board, but have also brought a great expertise for the successful strategic development of the Group into the company with five external supervisory board members under the leadership of the former Schenker CEO, Dr. Thomas Lieb.
