A search is underway in the Austrian town of Kremsmünster – and perhaps not just for a new chairman of the board. The departure of CEO Axel Kühner at the end of the year seems to have taken the owner family of plastics processing company Greiner (Kremsmünster; www.greiner.at) by surprise. This is also indicated by a statement from reliable sources that Kühner does not yet seem to have a new assignment to take up. The official version, however, is that the CEO and supervisory board had mutually agreed on an end to Kühner’s employment relationship.

The new head of the board of management will almost certainly be somebody from outside – this was confirmed by a spokesperson following an inquiry from Plasteurope.com. That somebody from the family would take over the job could not be entirely excluded, but it was very unlikely, they said. 

Kühner came to the Greiner group from Mercedes-Benz in 2009; sales had more than doubled under his leadership to, most recently, EUR 2.3 bn. Dominik Greiner, who was elected chairman of the supervisory board a few weeks ago, emphasised that Kühner had “made a major contribution” to this “extraordinary” development. Nevertheless, it cannot be entirely excluded that this recent appointment was responsible for Kühner’s departure – even if Greiner, as the deputy head of the supervisory board committee, had already been involved in the strategy for the years 2023 to 2028, which was formulated in the summer. 

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The success story leading up to a “competitive corporate group at all levels with optimum prospects for the future” (Kühner) has certainly not been without a few blemishes. In 2022, for example, Greiner was unsuccessful in the complete acquisition of Recticel (Brussels; www.recticel.com). The consequences of the failed takeover, which was intended to strengthen the polyurethane foams business, Neveon, are now becoming apparent – Greiner recently gave up the business with finished automotive products that was combined in Perfoam. The foams division Neveon will thus lose around EUR 100 mn of the total EUR 732 mn of sales and nearly 600 employees. In the future, the intention is to concentrate on mattresses, furniture, aircraft, and rail construction as well as speciality applications. 

For Greiner, the year 2022 can probably be described as rather mixed. Although sales increased slightly from EUR 2.27 bn to EUR 2.3 bn, chief financial officer Hannes Moser confirmed that growth had been lower than expected.

This was due above all to external factors such as inflation and mounting costs, which the company had only been able to pass on to a small extent. The packaging segment consolidated its leading position with an increase in sales of 17.7% to EUR 909 mn, followed by Neveon with EUR 732 mn and medical technology business Bio-One with EUR 693 mn. As far as earnings are concerned, the family-owned company had no comment.