Johannes Kapeller, the long-standing managing director of Austria’s largest private animal feed manufacturer, Likra Tiernahrung, hands over the reins to his son Roland Kapeller and the external manager Harald Kögler (46). Roland Kapeller (46) has been with the company since 2003 and is still responsible for purchasing, production, finance and human resources. The agricultural engineer Kögler, who comes from Upper Bavaria, takes over sales, product and quality management as well as marketing from Peter Streit, who is moving to Likra West in Germany. One wants to continue to be a specialist for all animal feeds, but also develop special products such as vitamin cocktails for camels, for example.
The senior will “continue to give one or the other piece of advice”, but he is retiring to strategic management in the Likra Group Holding. It is “high time” to take this step, says Johannes Kapeller. The operational withdrawal was actually planned years ago, but the death of managing director Josef Zeilinger, who died in a hunting accident in 2017, thwarted the plans.
The core of the company is Likra Tiernahrung in Linz and Marchtrunk with 140 employees. The group employs 210 people and most recently had a turnover of 109 million euros. With the management buyout in 1991 by Kapeller, it was 20 million euros. Further growth is planned. In the case of cattle, the gradual spread of milking robots requires an adaptation of the feed. In the case of domestic aquaculture, the degree of self-sufficiency for fish feed is only eight percent, so the market is “expandable”.
The export quota is 30 percent, by 2027 it should be 40 percent. “The current situation in the Ukraine only affects us to a minor extent in terms of exports. But more so in purchasing,” says Roland Kapeller, without being able to assess anything specific.
Source: Nachrichten
