Now in its 20th year, Fressnapf has established a new organisational structure to strengthen and expand its international presence across Europe and to create more value in the supply chain. The changes also bring with them many benefits to operations in Germany - a reduced workload will strengthen national sales and sales-related divisions. The new structure comes into effect on April 1st.

Restructuring at management level

Johannes Croé and Marc Lukies, Managing Directors Sales, will share responsibility for international markets in future. Lukies, previously Managing Director Sales Germany, will be responsible for sales in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Hungary, as well as for the German market. Croé will oversee Italy, France, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Spain.

To be able to take better advantage of the value creation chain, existing divisions will be complemented with the addition of a supply chain division, which will include the functions IT, logistics and master data, amongst others. These segments were previously assigned to Managing Director Michael Brackmann, who will continue to be responsible for private labels, international purchasing, category management and the e-commerce/catalogue division. Martin Luntscher will continue to account for the divisions finance, human resources, legal and investment administration. The new Managing Director Supply Chain position has not yet been filled.

Departmental changes

To meet the increased demands of international markets, former Head of National Sales Stefan Schropp and former Head of National Investments Jochen Huppert have been appointed as additional Heads of International Sales, alongside Michael Sperl. Schropp is succeeded in his role as Head of National Sales by Axel Henschke, Head of Marketing at Fressnapf since 2000. The marketing department will be provisionally led by Marco Theuring, Division Manager Inland Marketing until further notice.

"With an average annual growth of over 20 percent in international markets, we must prepare and reposition ourselves for the future. Internationalisation is our greatest challenge, and at the same time it offers the greatest opportunities for future growth," explains Fressnapf founder and proprietor Torsten Toeller.

Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH is the largest specialty chain for pet food and accessories in Europe. The retailer currently operates around 770 stores in Germany and is represented with around 1,100 stores across Europe.

Download this press release as PDF (21 KB)