CORPORATE INTRO
Dear Readers,
One of the four guiding principles in Gebr. Heinemann’s mission statement is “We are family”. In 2022, we saw once more how important the value of the family – our corporate family – is.
The last year presented us with challenges – old and new – that we could only overcome with family spirit: through shared confidence, trust in and respect for each other, a common vision, and mutual care and support. The COVID-19 pandemic has kept us and the world in suspense for another year, as has the war in Ukraine since February. The impact of the pandemic and associated travel restrictions were still clearly noticeable for our business especially in the first half of the year. They eased in the second. The outbreak of the war in Ukraine was a shock to us, and the suffering of the people affects us deeply. We initiated aid networks in Austria, Lithuania, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Romania in which many of our employees are involved. Then, at the beginning of this year, Turkey was hit by a terrible earthquake, which affected many of our employees and their families. Our thoughts are with them as well.
Despite these challenges, our business developed much more positively than expected over the year 2022 as a whole. We are satisfied with our results and glad that things are now looking up again – thanks to the travelers around the world. Geopolitical events have clearly changed our market – requiring us to change as well. To meet the complex new challenges of the future, we implemented an important realignment with the reorganization of our Executive Board in the summer 2022. Following our tradition of dual leadership in the fifth generation, we now operate with two Co-CEOs: Max Heinemann and Raoul Spanger. Raoul has been part of our corporate family for more than 30 years and is committed to our company like a family member. The Executive Board is completed by Dr. Dirk Schneider as Chief Commercial Officer, Florian Seidel as Chief Sales Officer, and Dr. Kai Deneke, our Chief Financial Officer. Our Executive Board members enjoy our fullest confidence. They are a good match, each with their own character and their own way of developing future scenarios and putting them into practice. They are united by their motivation to lead the company into a successful future.
In this context, we would also like to express our sincere thanks to our former Chief Financial Officer, Stephan Ernst, who left Gebr. Heinemann after more than 20 successful years in our company. Our special thanks goes to all our employees around the world who have been joining forces with us through the ups and downs of the last three difficult years. We are all the more pleased that in 2022 we were able to bring former colleagues back on board who we had been forced to let go the year before – in Turkey and Denmark as well as in Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. We were a strong and courageous team in the crisis. Now we can finally move forward again together.
Best regards,
Claus & Gunnar Heinemann
