Dr. Oetker – that’s pudding, cake and beer, but also hotels. Rudolf-August Oetker’s heirs argued for a long time about the direction of the group. Now there is a decision.
How are you doing with Dr. Oetker next? After decades of dispute about the direction of the group, the decision has now been made: Dr. Oetker is split up. The company announced this on Thursday in Bielefeld.
The shareholders Alfred, Carl Ferdinand and Julia Johanna Oetker take over the subsidiaries Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei, Martin Braun Backmittel KG, the Budenheim chemical factory, some hotels from the hotel division and the August Oetker art collection under one roof. Alfred and Ferdinand Oetker will join the management, reports the German Press Agency, citing a spokesman. The spokesman added that the location of the new holding has not yet been decided. However, he ruled out Bielefeld.
“With this decision, the shareholder groups overcome their different ideas about the management and strategy of the Oetker Group. A corresponding separation agreement has been signed by all owners,” said an official announcement from the Oetker Group on the split.
Groceries at Dr. Oetker remain in one unit
The separation agreement should be completed this year. “The decision has no impact on the employees in the individual companies of the Oetker Group,” says the press release. Neither side wanted to comment on the period of the talks between the parties involved. “Negotiations have been going on for some time,” is the official statement.
The part with the highest turnover with food (pizzas, baking mixes, frozen cakes and pudding), the Radeberger Group and some hotels remain in the hands of the shareholders of Richard and Philip Oetker, Rudolf Louis Schweizer, Markus von Luttitz and Ludwig Graf Douglas. In 2020, Dr. Oetker reports sales of 7.3 billion euros.
From the hotel group, the youngest siblings Alfred, Carl Ferdinand and Julia Johanna Oetker go under the name Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungs KG, the Oetker Hotel Management Company and the Hotel Le Bristol in Paris as well as the Château du Domaine St. Martin in Vence.
The other shareholders keep the Brenner’s Park Hotel in Baden-Baden and the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes. The beverage delivery service in a bottle that has just been taken over also remains with Richard Oetker’s tribes.
The family has been grappling with the dispute over alignment for many years. In 2017, Dr. Oetker from container shipping. For 3.7 billion euros, the Danish market leader Maersk took over Hamburg-Süd from East Westphalia, which with this step lost around half of its sales at the time.
Rudolf-August Oetker had eight children
When he died in 2007, Rudolf-August Oetker, the grandson of the company founder, left eight heirs from three marriages. His children were born from 1940 to 1979. There are sometimes almost 40 years between the half-siblings.
At the end of 2016, Richard Oetker (fourth child from his second marriage) had to give up management at the age of 65 according to the statutes. As early as 2010, when he took the helm at the top, the family lines were not in agreement. He, known to the public since 1976 as the kidnapping victim of Dieter Zlof, was seen six years ago as a buffer between the generations and prevented Alfred Oetker (first child from third marriage) at the helm. Carl Ferdinand is the second child from the third marriage. Richard’s successor as the first non-family manager at the top of the group was Albert Christmann at the beginning of 2017.
For Dr. Oetker and its subsidiaries work around 37,000 people worldwide. The business areas were previously divided as follows. Food (Dr. Oetker, Conditorei Coppenrath & Wiese, Martin-Braun-Gruppe), beer and non-alcoholic beverages (Radeberger-Gruppe), sparkling wine, wine and spirits (Henkell, Freixenet), luxury hotels, chemical industry and logistics as well as Bankhaus Lampe.
The bank is pending the approval of the supervisory authorities before the sale. This had already been decided before the split.
See in the video: Very quick and very easy: The chocolate chip cake needs just three ingredients and only 15 minutes to bake in the oven. We show you how to prepare the “emergency cake” here.
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
