Status: 07/02/2021 7:30 p.m.
A dispute at the top of the parent company of Lidl and Kaufland has escalated: The head of the Schwarz Group, Klaus Gehrig, has resigned. The reason is the dispute with owner Dieter Schwarz about a person.
There is a surprising change at the top of the Schwarz Group, which includes the supermarket chains Lidl and Kaufland. “Klaus Gehrig is no longer the head of the Schwarz Group,” said the company, which is considered to be the largest grocer in Europe. Gehrig “spontaneously resigned the mandate as general partner”. According to the averaging, Gehrig “couldn’t come to an agreement with owner Dieter Schwarz on a very important person”.
Lidl boss should be the successor
Schwarz had given Gehrig a leave of absence, it was said – but “with the stipulation that further cooperation should be regulated in a further discussion”. The relationship between the two is “still unclouded”. “Dieter Schwarz will now act as general partner until Gerd Chrzanowski, the designated successor and current CEO of Lidl, can take over the mandate,” announced the company.
The 73-year-old Gehrig is hardly known to the general public. However, as the long-time head of the company, he played a decisive role in the fact that the Schwarz Group developed into a global corporation over a period of more than 40 years. According to its own information, the group recently employed 458,000 people and operates more than 12,500 branches in 33 countries. The annual turnover in 2019 was therefore around 113 billion euros net. Of this, Lidl accounted for 89 billion euros.
Klaus Gehrig resigns from his position as head of the Schwarz Group after a dispute over a personnel issue. (Archive picture from 2008)
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
Guesswork on background of decision
The sudden departure of Gehrig, who, according to earlier statements, did not want to retire for two years, raises questions. Which personality escalated the dispute in the head of the Schwarz group remained unanswered in the brief press release. Various media reported that in recent years Gehrig preferred young women for top positions in the group and blocked Chrzanowski’s ascent. Gehrig is said to have supported 30-year-old Melanie Köhler; she had surprisingly left the company a few weeks ago.
Some time ago it was announced that Chrzanowski should take Gehrig’s position in the future. A date for the planned change in leadership has not yet been announced. As the “Handelsblatt” reports, Chrzanowski had established a direct line to owner Schwarz and made a name for himself with a good feel for the modernization of the discounter Lidl.