Hochland adds to its management team

The growth of the Hochland Group as well as the dairy’s ‘Vision 2025’ require strengthening of the managing board, so a four-person team will lead the holding of the Allgäu-based cheese manufacturer, the company says.

With effect from 1 January 2022, Josef Stitzl will be appointed COO and will take over responsibility for the production plants, for purchasing, logistics and sustainability. He is a mechanical engineer and has been with the group for 15 years. Since 2012 he has been general manager of Hochland Deutschland.

Also from the start of 2022, Sebastian Schaeffer will be appointed to the Hochland managing board as CCO, responsible for marketing and sales and for product development. He is moving from the Swiss company Hero to the cheese manufacturer. He is a legal expert with long-standing marketing and management experience in the FMCG sector. He held different functions within the Hero Group, among others CEO of Schwartau Werke, before being appointed in 2018 to general manager of the Northern Europe Cluster, with responsibility for the Benelux countries, UK, Nordics and the Baltic states and, in dual employment, CEO of Semper in Stockholm with subsidiaries in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.

Responsibilities will be partly reorganised. Peter Stahl will remain CEO, responsible for strategic topics, mergers and acquisitions and corporate communication. Hubert Staub will be in charge of the financial department, human resources, IT and new business development (vegan). Both of them have been with Hochland for a long time: Stahl for 27 years and Staub for 28 years.