Management

16 March 2022

REWE Group expands Management Board

Reading time: 6 min.

Cologne. The Cologne-based trade and tourism group has decided to expand its Group Management Board in response to the strong growth it has recorded over the past few years, as well as the development and integration of new business segments which together have led to revenue of more than €75 billion at REWE Group (2020 business year) and a workforce in excess of 380,000 employees. The appointment to the Management Board of Christoph Eltze, 48, (as of 1 July 2022), Dr. Daniela Büchel, 49, Peter Maly, 53, and Hans-Jürgen Moog, 53, (all as of 1 January 2023) will further strengthen Group-wide cooperation with the business units and generate additional synergies throughout the Group. All four new REWE Group Management Board members were previously Executive Board members for Retail Germany, in which capacity Christoph Eltze was responsible for Digital, Customer & Analytics and IT, Dr. Daniela Büchel for HR and Sustainability, and Hans-Jürgen Moog for Procurement, with Peter Maly serving as COO REWE. Beginning 1 January 2023, Büchel, Eltze, Maly and Moog will join Lionel Souque, 50 (CEO), Jan Kunath, 56 (Deputy CEO), and Telerik Schischmanow, 47 (CFO from 1 July 2022), to make up the seven-member Management Board of REWE Group.

  • Dr. Daniela Büchel and Christoph Eltze (from left)

  • Peter Maly, Hans-Jürgen Moog and Telerik Schischmanow (from left)

Sören Hartmann, 59, the current Management Board member responsible for the Travel and Tourism division of REWE Group, will be stepping down from the Management Board as planned when his current contract expires on 31 December 2022, but will continue to serve the company in an advisory role. Group CEO Lionel Souque will assume responsibility for the Travel and Tourism division from 1 January 2023.

In addition, effective 1 July 2022, Jan Kunath will take over responsibility on the REWE Group Management Board for the DIY Stores business segment, including the toom Baumarkt DIY stores in Germany, from the department headed by CFO Dr. Christian Mielsch, who is leaving the company.

The expansion of the Management Board will create the conditions needed to improve our efficiency and Group-wide synergies even further with regard to strategic tasks relating to human resources, sustainability, procurement, technology and digitalisation, says Lionel Souque. In addition, the appointment of the COO for REWE Deutschland as a Group Management Board member underscores the huge role our core business plays in the development of the entire Group. I am convinced that given our business success and the dynamic growth we’ve achieved over the last five years, we still have tremendous potential for even more innovative and rapid development. Group-wide collaboration and cooperation in cross-sectional areas and activities play a key role here. All of our future Group Management Board members are outstanding and competent managers who believe with a passion in our cooperative company’s values, and also set an example for the rest of the workforce in this regard. In addition, our many years of cooperation with one another have made us an experienced and well-coordinated team. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the REWE Group Supervisory Board for the trust it has placed in our planned development path and in our future Management Board members.

The Chairman of REWE Group’s Supervisory Board, Erich Stockhausen, had the following to say: Our company has developed very rapidly over the last few years. Numerous innovations both large and small have had a positive impact on the development of our stationary business models and have also led to the creation of entirely new formats. Given this very dynamic and successful development, it makes sense to divide the work in the REWE Group Management Board among a larger number of people – and this will also ensure that an adequate level of efficiency can be maintained. In my view, it’s especially pleasing that as we expand the Management Board, we are able to once again fall back on managers from our own ranks – managers who have demonstrated their commitment and expertise over many successful years at REWE Group. In particular when filling our top management positions, it is important that we act in line with our cooperative principles and values; we believe in long-term oriented thinking and action that will safeguard sustainable success across generations.

Speaking about the departure of Sören Hartmann from the Management Board at the end 2022, Lionel Souque had the following to say: Through his outstanding work and untiring dedication, Sören Hartmann made a decisive contribution to expanding DER Touristik Group into an organisation that was able to secure for itself a leading position in the German and European tourism industry – and I am extremely grateful to him for this achievement. REWE Group Supervisory Board Chairman Erich Stockhausen added: Sören Hartmann structured our Travel and Tourism division in a manner that will enable it to emerge from the crisis in a strong position. I am very grateful to him for that – and for his many years of successful work with DER Touristik Group and in the REWE Group Management Board.

About REWE Group

  • The cooperatively organized REWE Group is one of the leading trade and tourism groups in Germany and Europe. In 2024, the company generated a total external turnover of more than 96 billion euros. Founded in 1927, REWE Group operates with around 380,000 employees in 21 European countries.

    The sales lines include REWE, REWE CENTER, nahkauf and BILLA as well as BILLA PLUS and ADEG supermarkets and consumer stores, the discounter PENNY, IKI, the drugstores BIPA and the toom Baumarkt DIY stores. The company also operates convenience stores REWE To Go and the e-commerce activities REWE Liefer- and Abholservice as well as Zooroyal and Weinfreunde. The Lekkerland Group comprises the wholesale activities of the business group in the area of on-the-go consumption. Under the umbrella of DERTOUR Group, the Travel and Tourism division includes more than 2,000 travel agencies, tour operators as well as hotel brands and online travel portals.

Ines_Schu

Contact

Ines Schurin

Group Director Corporate Communications at
REWE Group

Join the discussion on

Our LinkedIn feed has all the latest information from the REWE Group and the sector, with the most important developments from the worlds of retail, e-commerce, food, CSR and policy.