On 2 October 2015, Helmar Franz withdrew from his operational functions as vice president, executive director and chief strategic officer at injection moulding machine manufacturer Haitian International (Hong Kong / China; www.haitianinter.com), on reaching the pension age of 65. He will nevertheless remain tightly linked to the company and will continue to serve on its board as a “non-executive director" in an advisory function.

Franz is one of the most illustrious top managers in global plastics machinery construction. His roots lie with the former Plastmaschinenwerk Schwerin. In 1991, he joined the then Demag group, which he headed from 1999 to 2005. He caused a stir by moving to the then Chinese and now Asian market leader Haitian (see Plasteurope.com of 19.01.2006). Also in 2005, he founded Haitian subsidiary Zhafir Plastics Machinery (Ebermannsdorf / Germany; www.zhafir.com) for premium machines. There, the change of generation took place back in 2013 (see Plasteurope.com of 24.06.2013).

In 2002, Franz became an honorary professor at the University of St. Petersburg. Topics such as standardisation, complexity costs and drive engineering are connected just as much with his personality as with his ability to promote understanding in the German plastics industry for the mentalities and cultures in which he lived for so many years – for Russia, Egypt, Iraq and China. It is to be assumed that Franz will continue to be active in both science and the industry.