Schreier’s time at the top of the world’s biggest press manufacturer has taken place against the backdrop of the most tumultuous time in its history, with sales falling off a cliff after the onset of the GFC, resulting in mass redundancies, government bailouts and a plummeting share price.
However Heidelberg has made a positive start to its order figures for the 2012/13 financial year thanks to a good showing at the drupa, with incoming orders climbing to around €890m compared to €665m from the previous year, the highest in four years.
The Supervisory Board unanimously appointed an outsider to the printing industry Gerold Linzbach as Heidelberg CEO with effect from September 1. Schreier, who has been at Heidelberg for 37 years, will stay for four months to assist with the transition.
Schreirer has been in charge of Heidelberg for almost 13 years, over the recent months, key steps have been taken to set the company’s new strategic course and a start has been made on putting this into practice to return Heidelberg to sustained profitable growth.
Robert Koehler, chairman supervisory board, Heidelberg says “I would like to thank Bernhard Schreier for his achievements as Heidelberg CEO. In a career spanning a total of 37 years, 13 of them as CEO, he has truly made his mark on the company and has succeeded in guiding it through two major global economic crises and structural upheaval in the printing industry. Particularly in very difficult recent times, he has helped transform Heidelberg from a traditional press manufacturer into a solution and service provider in the print media industry.”
In addition to the GFC Schreier has had to contend with another financial crisis in 2002, the onset of the internet age which has seen marketing dollars move to digital communication. He also moved away from his predecessor Hartmut Medhorn’s one stop shop policy.
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