Trigema boss Grupp lashes out at managers
Wolfgang Grupp rejects the growing criticism of Germany as a business location and sees the cause of companies' problems in management. Decision-makers must once again take responsibility for their actions, says the Trigema boss to ntv. Then the location will be like it used to be.
Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp cannot understand the criticism of Germany as a business location and has launched an all-out attack on politicians and managers. In an interview with ntv, he said that the location is exactly the same as in previous years, "only the entrepreneurs have behaved differently". According to Grupp, the problem is that managers too often do not have to take responsibility for their actions. "The decision-makers need to take responsibility again," said the family entrepreneur. "Then the location will surely return to the way it used to be."
Grupp is the owner and sole managing director of textile manufacturer Trigema and is liable with his private assets. His company is based in Burladingen, Swabia. There used to be numerous textile companies in the area, but today there is only Grupp's company left. It produces exclusively in Germany. In 1969, he took over the company founded by his grandfather in 1919. It was heavily in debt at the time. Grupp led the company out of the red. Last year, turnover was around 127 million euros and the number of employees was around 1160. The debts have long since been repaid and Trigema has never taken out another loan. At the beginning of next year, Grupp will hand over the management of the company to his son and daughter.
If Burladingen was previously a "great" location, it can't suddenly be bad, said Grupp. "Then the entrepreneurs in Burladingen are bad. They determine what the location looks like and what it doesn't look like". When entrepreneurs are liable, "the decisions are more considered, more responsible and, above all, not subject to greed and megalomania," said the 81-year-old.
In this context, Grupp referred to the bankruptcy of Austrian investor René Benko's Signa Holding. He found it "incomprehensible" that Benko had received loans worth billions. However, he did not blame the investor, but the politicians, said Grupp. After all, the current legal situation had enabled Benko to buy properties "without personal liability".
"As long as things are going well, people will cash in"
The most important properties and construction projects in the Signa portfolio belong to Signa Prime - including the Elbtower construction project in Hamburg, which is currently at a standstill, the KaDeWe in Berlin and department store properties of the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof chain. Signa Prime has not filed for insolvency. However, it posted a loss of around one billion euros last year and had around 10.8 billion euros in debt at the end of 2022. Benko had taken out cheap loans in the low-interest phase of recent years and brought financially strong investors on board to significantly expand his group. However, rapidly rising interest rates, higher construction costs and soaring energy prices have put his complex network of companies in a precarious position.
Benko first took over Karstadt and then merged it with Kaufhof in 2019. Karstadt and later Galeria survived two insolvency proceedings. State aid of 680 million euros also flowed in, but the federal government had to write it off. "As long as things are going well, people are cashing in, and when things go bad, the taxpayer has to pick up the tab. This no longer has anything to do with the rule of law," said an annoyed Grupp.
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Despite being a family business owner and executive, Grupp criticizes executive salaries in the middle class, stating that they often lack accountability. He recalls the case of René Benko, whose Signa Holding faced financial issues, and points out that Benko, like many managers, received large loans with minimal personal liability.
Source: www.ntv.de
