The chairman of the supervisory board of the agricultural trading group Baywa, Klaus Josef Lutz, resigned from his position with immediate effect on Friday. The company announced this after a special meeting of the committee. The supervisory board had previously discussed CEO Marcus Pöllinger’s allegation of a suspected compliance violation in detail – and then expressed its full confidence in Pöllinger. The nature of the alleged violation of the rules of good corporate governance was not disclosed.
Lutz ran the S-Dax group himself for 15 years and then handed over the chairmanship of the board to Pöllinger nine months ago. He has been working for Baywa since 2008 and has been a member of the board since 2018. The group employs almost 25,000 people and generated sales of 27 billion euros and a profit of 240 million euros last year. Baywa’s main shareholders are Raiffeisen companies. Under Lutz’s aegis, Baywa, which was once largely limited to agricultural trade, had grown significantly; in addition to the agricultural and building materials trade, the renewable energy business is now a focus. Lutz is also President of the Bavarian Chamber of Industry and Commerce.