Refurbishment: New bosses at the BayWa

At the BayWa, two new men at the top are to tackle the upcoming years of renovation. The new CEO will be the trained engineer Frank Hiller (58), who has had top positions in several industrial companies in recent years. Matthias Rapp (57) is also to become the new CFO, also an experienced manager who has worked for the car supplier Webasto in the past. The BayWa Supervisory Board announced this. Both should work for the company from the weekend.

“I will do everything I can to lead the company to the usual stability and liability,” said the future CEO Hiller. The chairman’s armchair has been orphaned since last autumn after predecessor Marcus Pöllinger had taken his hat off early. The previous CFO Andreas Helber is expected to work until March to coordinate the annual financial statements 2024.

The BayWa had taken over with a loan -financed expansion abroad in the past decade and had been in payment difficulties last year. In the first nine months of 2024, the BayWa group had written almost 641 million euros in net loss.

New financial officer: “It won’t be easy”

The Baywa, which emerged from the cooperative movement, is the largest German agricultural dealer, other business areas are renewable energies and construction. The renovation plan is now, even if it has been delayed.

The company is said to have recovered financially by the end of 2028. The large corporate participations that have been acquired in the past decade are to be sold again. “It will not be easy, but with determination, transparency and cooperation, we will successfully master this transformation,” said the new CFO Rapp.

Hiller and Rapp have not worked out the renovation plan, which has been available since December. Of the 8,000 full-time positions of the parent company Baywa AG, 1,300 are to be deleted, which corresponds to around 16 percent of the group’s full-time jobs in Germany.