Uhlmann UNDERGOING CHANGESAll Under One Roof

Together, we are prepared for the future. In October, we fundamentally reorganized our corporate group. Here are the main aspects of the new holding structure.

11.12.2019

Illus­tra­tion: Samy Löwe

What is actu­ally a holding company?

In busi­ness manage­ment, a holding struc­ture describes the orga­ni­za­tional form of a parent company that has at least one subsidiary, but usually more. The holding company gener­ally holds the ulti­mate respon­si­bility for all subsidiaries. How that is actu­ally put into prac­tice in daily oper­a­tions, and for which deci­sions, for instance, a subsidiary must obtain approval from the holding company, can vary widely between holding compa­nies.

 

This new holding struc­ture gives the Uhlmann Group a very future-oriented footing and enables us to harness many syner­gies between the compa­nies.

Norbert Gruber, CEO & Managing Director

 

How our new holding struc­ture func­tions:

Super­vi­sory Board

No changes: The Super­vi­sory Board chaired by Tobias Uhlmann defines the strategic course for the whole Uhlmann Group.

 

Uhlmann Group

The new Uhlmann Holding coor­di­nates and moni­tors imple­men­ta­tion of the Group Strategy. As the new corpo­rate umbrella, the holding company supports the different Group Compa­nies in their deci­sion-making and assumes over­ar­ching func­tions. One example is the manage­ment of a Group-wide finance reporting system. Such a system enables us to main­tain an overview of the finan­cial situ­a­tion at all times. In general, the holding company refrains from involve­ment in busi­ness oper­a­tions.

 

Group Compa­nies

Each of our Group Compa­nies oper­ates as a strong, inde­pen­dent unit in compli­ance with the Group Strategy and in the interest of our corpo­rate success. They exer­cise a high degree of freedom in devel­oping and marketing their respec­tive prod­ucts and services.

 

Subsidiaries

Depending on the size of the Group Company, other branch offices or sites belong to them. The respon­si­bility for these continues as before. Each subsidiary reports first and fore­most to its Group Company.

 

Who is respon­sible for what in the holding company?

Corpo­rate Busi­ness Devel­op­ment: N.N.

  • Long-term, over­ar­ching devel­op­ment plan­ning for all Group Compa­nies
  • Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of new target groups, markets, and busi­ness models
  • Devel­op­ment of strategic alliances with other compa­nies
  • Scouting for inter­esting poten­tial acqui­si­tions

Corpo­rate Strategic Procure­ment: Tobias Beck

  • Pooling of the needs of the Group
  • Global commodity manage­ment
  • Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of global sources of supply

Legal & Intel­lec­tual Prop­erty: Sebas­tian Binder

  • Manage­ment of issues concerning propri­etary rights in contracts
  • Manage­ment of our intel­lec­tual prop­erty (inte­gra­tive IP manage­ment)
  • Filing of propri­etary rights

Corpo­rate Finance & Control­ling: Eduard Witmann

  • Coor­di­na­tion of Group-wide reporting
  • Manage­ment of finan­cial resources
  • Manage­ment of corpo­rate and tax law proce­dures

Corpo­rate Human Resources: N.N.

  • Coor­di­na­tion of post­ings and job rota­tion
  • Manage­ment of manage­rial and junior staff devel­op­ment at global level
  • Estab­lish­ment of global skills manage­ment
  • Creation of uniform HR stan­dards

Corpo­rate Commu­ni­ca­tions: Ralph Brey­maier*

  • Anchoring of our vision, mission, and values
  • Creation of cross-brand concepts and commu­ni­ca­tion mate­rial
  • Commu­nica­tive repre­sen­ta­tion of the Group
    *in double func­tion Head of Marketing at Uhlmann Pac-Systeme

Corpo­rate Digital Lab: Marcello De Pompa

  • Devel­op­ment and testing of new ideas
  • Customer coop­er­a­tion for pilot projects concerning digital solu­tions
  • Appli­ca­tion of digital inno­va­tion methods

Corpo­rate IT: Nicolas Mund­brod

  • Devel­op­ment of a Group-wide IT strategy
  • Advance­ment of the system land­scape
  • Harmo­niza­tion of processes and systems within the Group
  • Respon­si­bility for IT service port­folio, IT project port­folio, and IT secu­rity

Corpo­rate Real Estate Manage­ment: N.N.

  • Manage­ment of prop­er­ties world­wide
  • Analysis and assess­ment of prop­er­ties and land
  • Manage­ment of poten­tial new real estate purchases

 

How exactly was the changeover to the holding struc­ture performed?

Our corpo­rate manage­ment decided against estab­lishing the holding as a new company for tax and corpo­rate law reasons. Instead, we favored a company switchover. This was conducted as follows:

  1. The former company Uhlmann Pac-Systeme GmbH & Co. KG was renamed as Uhlmann Group Holding GmbH & Co. KG. About two dozen employees remained in the holding company and are respon­sible for the above-mentioned tasks.
  2. The rest of the work­force changed employer so to speak: 1,500 colleagues were trans­ferred on paper to Uhlmann Asien Holding GmbH & Co. KG, which had previ­ously managed our Asian busi­ness.
  3. This was coupled with the renaming of Uhlmann Asien Holding, hence­forth Uhlmann Pac-Systeme GmbH & Co. KG – the former name of the holding company. At the same time, it takes over all work of the “old” Uhlmann Pac-Systeme, apart from those respon­si­bil­i­ties shifted to the holding company.

What has changed for Pac-Systeme employees?

Nothing, actu­ally. The struc­tures and respon­si­bil­i­ties are the same as before. The changeover is purely of legal nature. The system­atic regu­la­tion was so good that no paper­work was neces­sary. Natu­rally, the work­force had to be informed in writing, but that was it. Arrange­ments such as collec­tive pay agree­ments or anniver­sary bonuses will be continued without any changes.

For us, holding means more room for what we do best:
Offering tech­nology and service at the highest level.

So why the changeover?

The complexity now attained by our corpo­rate group makes several changes neces­sary. In order to work effi­ciently, it is imper­a­tive to purpose­fully channel the incred­ibly vast amount of expert knowl­edge of our employees. Other­wise, it could be that two or three depart­ments work on the same problem at the same time. This is precisely why an over­ar­ching body is needed to coor­di­nate and manage. We can then solve various chal­lenges in the same time span! The regu­la­tive role was played by Uhlmann Pac-Systeme in the former struc­ture, but the company was natu­rally always very involved in daily busi­ness oper­a­tions – the building and marketing of machines. Hence the step to transfer all over­ar­ching func­tions to the Uhlmann Group Holding so that the “new” Uhlmann Pac-Systeme is free to attend to what it does best – offer customers top-quality tech­nology and services.

 

Further infor­ma­tion on the holding:

Down­load Q&A on the foun­da­tion of the Uhlmann Group Holding

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