Which was a rumor (inside.beer, 20.5.2021) is now being confirmed. The Oetker Group, one of the largest family-run businesses in Germany, with 5 business divisions, around 400 companies, more than 36,000 employees and yearly sales revenue of EUR 7.33 billion (USD 8.63bn) will be split up in two separate and independent parts.
As a consequence, Radeberger Group, Germany’s largest brewing group, and Henkell Freixenet (officially Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG)the world’s largest sparkling wine group, will in future have different owners.
“With this decision, the owners take their different ideas about the management and strategy of the Oetker Group into account,” a joint press statement read today. A corresponding business separation agreement was signed by all owners and is expected to be executed still in this year.
As part of the agreement, the five older half-siblings from the first two marriages of patriarch Rudolf-August Oetker, who died in 2007, namely Richard Oetker, Rudolf Louis Schweizer, Philip Oetker, Markus von Luttitz, and Ludwig Graf Douglas will remainownership in Dr. August Oetker KG and, inter alia, the Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG, Conditorei Coppenrath & Wiese KG, the Radeberger Gruppe KG with its beverage retail and wholesale businesses and its platform and delivery services, such as flaschenpost SE, further Oetker Digital GmbH, OEDIV Oetker Daten- und Informationsverarbeitung KG, Brenner‘s Park Hotel GmbH in Baden-Baden, and Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc S.A.S. in Antibes as well as smaller companies like Roland Transport KG or Handelsgesellschaft Sparrenberg mbH.
On the other side, the three younger half-siblings from the third marriage of Rudolf-August Oetker, namely Dr. Alfred Oetker, Carl Ferdinand Oetker, and Julia Johanna Oetker, will bundle their part of the business in the new holding company Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen KG. This new group will include the companies Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG, Martin Braun Backmittel und Essenzen KG, Chemische Fabrik Budenheim KG, Atlantic Forfaitierungs AG, BELVINI.DE GmbH, Columbus Properties, Inc., as well as Oetker Hotel Management Company GmbH and the Hôtel Le Bristol S.A.S. in Paris and Château du Domaine St. Martin S.A.S. in Vence, and Kunstsammlung Rudolf August Oetker GmbH.
The press statement said that “the owners and the Advisory Board are convinced that these measures allow the companies that are already managed in a decentralized and independent manner a clear perspective for profitable growth in their respective markets.”
The decision has no impact on the employees in the individual companies of the Oetker Group. Dr. Albert Christmann, formerly head of the Radeberger Group and now General Partner and Member of the Group Management of Dr. August Oetker KG, is said to stay in his role.
