The economic situation at HELLER has improved significantly in 2021. Nine months of 2021 have passed and the incoming orders are already approx. 80 percent above the previous year and expected to reach about 450 million euros by the end of the year. The European market in particular as well as the markets in China and Brazil have meanwhile seen a significant upturn. In terms of single-machine business, orders predominantly came from outside the automotive industry.
HELLER is bracing itself and looks to the future with optimism
Given this positive development, the HELLER Group is optimistic about the future. HELLER aims to return to the business volume from before the crisis as early as 2022. Further expansion of regional business, an even stronger presence in Asia and North America as well as the strong market position in the commercial vehicle business will continue to make up for the lack of orders relating to light-duty combustion engines. The transformation of HELLER is driven forward in a consistent manner. “For years, we have been aligning our broad portfolio towards additional applications in production and additional types of workpieces. Structural components, for example, have become an increasingly important field of activity,” says Klaus Winkler, CEO of Heller Management SE, about the further development of the company. “However, given the uncertainties surrounding the internal combustion engine, the support of customers wishing to extend the useful life of existing production systems is also gaining in importance,” continues Winkler. Both digitisation at HELLER and a systematic innovation management to develop new business areas contribute to further safeguard the future of HELLER.
HELLER will remain in family hands – changes in the shareholder structure
There has been a change in the shareholder structure of the HELLER Group. On 14 October 2021, Jochen and Steffen Schwencke ceased to be shareholders. In the future, Nicole Pfleiderer and Marc Heller will hold 100 percent of the shares in Heller Holding SE & Co. KGaA through family-owned companies and will thus become sole owners of the HELLER Group.
HELLER will continue to be a family-owned business. Berndt Heller as Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Heller Management SE and Heller Holding SE & Co. KGaA as well as the shareholders Marc Heller and Nicole Pfleiderer are fully committed to this. “My brother and I have always felt a strong commitment to continue the family-owned company built by the first two generations of the family. It is wonderful to see that with my children the fourth generation of the family is taking on this responsibility,” says Berndt Heller. This step will not result in any changes in the strategic and operational alignment of the HELLER Group. The board of directors of the managing Heller Management SE will remain to consist of non-family members. The executive board roles are currently held by Chairman Klaus Winkler and Manfred Maier.
Shareholder history
Since 2016, the shareholders of HELLER Holding SE & Co. KGaA have exclusively consisted of members of the Heller family. Since then, 100 percent of the shares were held by four members of the fourth generation of the Heller family. These are Nicole Pfleiderer and Marc Heller, descendants of today's Chairman of the Supervisory Board and long-time Managing Director Berndt Heller, and their cousins Jochen and Steffen Schwencke. Until recently, the siblings Nicole Pfleiderer and Marc Heller together held 50.6 percent and Jochen and Steffen Schwencke a total of 49.4 percent of the shares in the HELLER Group.
