Dr Jörg Lehmann, CEO and COO of Paulaner Brewery Group, is leaving the company after five years at the helm due to differing opinions on the strategic direction of the company. The Munich based group said that there were especially different views about the question of how the desired sustainable profitable growth of the company should be achieved and how the Paulaner Brewery Group should set itself up for this in the best possible way in terms of organization and personnel.
As has been planned for a long time, Lehmann will also step down as president of the German Brewers' Association this summer after completing two terms in office.
According to sources close to the company, Lehmann and the group's shareholders, Heineken and Schörghuber Group, have agreed amicably on the modalities of the departure on September 30, 2023.
“The decision to go separate ways in the future does not change the esteem and trust that both shareholders have in Dr Jörg Lehmann”, said Nico Nusmeier, Chairman of the Shareholder Committee. "Both the owners of the Paulaner Brewery Group and I personally are very grateful to Dr Jörg Lehmann for what has been achieved in Kulmbach and Munich over the past ten years,” says Nusmeier.
Success stories like those of Chiemseer, Paulaner Spezi (inside.beer, 17.10.2022) and most recently Paulaner Hell, but also the clever navigation through the challenges of the pandemic have shaped the time of his responsibility. According to Nusmeier, Lehmann will be in charge of driving forward the transformation of the company until he leaves.
Lehmann served six years as Managing Director of ABInBev’s Munich based subsidiary Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu and as CTO of Löwenbräu before joing the Paulaner Brewery Group in 2016, where he was assigned the role of CTO of Kulmbacher Brauerei. In February 2018, when Dr Stefan Lustig, CTO of Paulaner Brewery Group did “not renew his managing contract in agreement with the shareholders” and unexpectedly left the company, Lehmann changed from Kulmbach to Munich and took over the role as CTO of the whole group. (inside.beer, 8.2.2018)
In April 2018, when former CEO of Paulaner Brewery Group, Roland Tobias also left the company “due to differences of opinion on the management of the company and planned changes,” Lehmann was “temporarily” appointment to chair the executive committee of the group (inside.beer, 16.4.2018)
Finally, effective as of 1 September 2018, Lehmann also became officially Chairman of the Management Board, where he was responsible for sales of 650 million Euros in 2017. (inside.beer, 16.8.2018)
