Background Milk
German Müller Milch remains the plaything of old hand Theo
Germany's Müller Milch, known here for its almhof desserts, is once again a bit out of control. With a milk supply of €6,5 billion kilos and an annual turnover of somewhere between €6 and €7 billion, the company is the second largest German dairy company in terms of size, but it is also a constant plaything for old great man Theo Müller (81). Top managers never last long with him.
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In mid-January it happened again: once again a new CEO leaves. This time it was about John Broekmans, who was originally Dutch. He started at FrieslandCampina and later made a career at Bongrain/Savencia. He allowed himself to be roped in by Theo Müller about a year and a half ago, with the almost inevitable outcome.
Long line of cast-offs
A whole line of illustrious predecessors ended up on the same pile of Müller's cast-offs, including several directors of Dutch origin. No one could charm him permanently.
Son Stefan (53) is now chairman of the supervisory board of the family business, but he is not involved in the day-to-day affairs. He runs his own company and the family reportedly prefers to use external top managers. The search for a new candidate has started again, but the question is increasingly how long can this continue?
The company continues to grow steadily
Despite all the unrest at the top, the company continues to do surprisingly well in relative terms. In 2017, the turnover was more than €5 billion, and has now grown to around one and a half billion. The company has managed to maintain itself well in the German home market and also in Great Britain, where it has acquired a second home market since 2012, mainly through the acquisition of Robert Wiseman and Dairy Crest. The company is not known among dairy farmers as the best payer, but it still manages to retain a large group of suppliers.
Standort Luxembourg
Precise figures about the ins and outs of the company are difficult to obtain, because the headquarters of Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller (UTM) has been located in Luxembourg for many years and many books there do not have to be made public.
The company's roots lie in Bavaria. Theo Müller started there in the 2s with just four employees. the family business has long left that small scale behind. Particularly since the fall of 'the wall' and the unification of Germany. Theo Müller was quick to build a large new factory in Leppersdorf, near Dresden, in East Germany and with a lot of government support. This factory, Sachsenmilch, was for many years one of the largest contiguous dairy complexes in Europe and could process around 27.000 billion kilos of milk. UTM currently has almost XNUMX employees and the family group has seventeen factories. Especially in Germany and Great Britain.