The mother advises at the cheese counter, the son coaches investors and entrepreneurs. She trained as a retail clerk in a small supermarket and he studied economics at the renowned University of St. Gallen. Gabriele Bachmann, 62, has worked in the Munich delicatessen Dallmayr for almost 20 years; Julius Bachmann, 34, started his own business five years ago and has been writing a book for months with the working title: “Careers in the 21st Century”.
20 years like his mother or 35 years like his father (engineer at a Munich car brand), younger generations will hardly be able to achieve such career paths. Julius Bachmann deals with how you have to position yourself personally today in order to find your professional identity. His parents are role models for him, and traditional companies like Dallmayr are a rock in the surf of the business world.
What connects mother and son? “We like to listen to people and respond to them,” says Gabriele Bachmann. “I always try to put myself in the customers’ shoes.” The son writes in his blog: “I try not to give customers advice, but rather to understand: Where are the topics that are really close to them?” His coaching training gave him the techniques and confidence for his job. But the basics come from his family.
Mother and son are where they want to be professionally. Not everyone can say that. “I am proud of my workplace,” says Gabriele Bachmann. She was at Dallmayr in the 1980s and has been back for some time now. She stands in front of the counter, which is piled high with around 150 types of cheese, all of which she knows. Usually her place is behind, this morning Gabriele Bachmann is privately in Munich’s delicatessen. She puts on the blue coat and white apron just for the photographer.
A lady recognizes her and nods to the saleswoman. “At Dallmayr it’s perhaps a bit like it used to be in a corner shop, where people come and want to chat,” says Bachmann. Advice is particularly needed in the cheese department; somewhere else in the house it would probably be too bland for her, she says. A typical conversation sometimes goes like this, Bachmann shows it: The customer says: “I have an invitation at the weekend, what could I offer?” If it’s summer, she answers, for example: “Maybe a good tomato soup? Put half a burrata in it and garnish with basil. And at the end we’ll make a nice cheese plate.” After all, it’s also about selling.
Gabriele Bachmann has around 150 types of cheese in her counter at Dallmayr.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Mother and son can talk. Affectionate, friendly, polite. Julius was expected to be like this when he visited his mother in the store. She sometimes hears from colleagues: “Gabi has office hours again.” Especially the older people who have known them for a long time expected a little more than just well-aged specialties. But some just say: “As always.” She has her preferences in her head, so she doesn’t have to write them down. “We have royals here who come and shop with us very easily,” says Gabriele Bachmann. Then she asks: “All four booms under control?” Then she would be happy to talk about her own offspring. Bachmann speaks fine Munich language; she grew up in Allach. With dialect in your voice, such sentences don’t seem wrong.
Bachmann enjoys being part of a successful, traditional company. A good 100 employees work in the store, 300 are employed in the entire headquarters, and 4,700 employees work for the Dallmayr Group worldwide. Gabriele Bachmann firmly believes that continuity fascinates people. Sales manager Stefan Weiß has been here for 40 years. The managing partner Florian Randlkofer represents the fifth generation of Randlkofers. The third part of Lisa Graf’s family saga has just been published. It begins in 1897 with Anton and Therese Randlkofer, a bestseller.
When her son and daughter, a food technologist, still lived at home, Gabriele Bachmann made sure that the family sat around the table once a day. To look each other in the eyes, to exchange ideas. And because they all like to eat. The son always had something to say. He was class and student representative, mediator, tutor and guitarist in a band. After completing his studies, he started working as a consultant and investor. Today he says: “I found the turnoff quicker than others.” He consciously went looking for alternatives to a stressful everyday life. Writing, his music and his role as a coach are now his personal cornerstones. And your own nuclear family with a daughter.