At ZF Friedrichshafen, the signs continue to point towards conversion. The automotive supplier, condemned to save money, announced on Wednesday that board member Martin Fischer (52) would not extend his contract, which expires at the end of October, and would leave the company. Peter Holdmann (54) will be responsible for the Chassis Solutions division and the Quality department. The engineer has been working for ZF since 2000 and will be joining the board on May 1st.
According to ZF, Fischer will be handed over his other tasks, the management of the Passive Safety Technology and Electronics and Autonomous Driving division as well as the management of the North and South America region, “in a staggered manner until his departure.”
Fischer is not the first board member in recent times not to sign a new contract with the supplier. Last year, human resources director Sabine Jaskula (56) left
. She was followed by Lea Corzilius (34). At the beginning of 2023, there was an even more extensive renovation on Lake Constance: Holger Klein (53) was promoted to CEO as the successor to Wolf-Henning Scheider (61), Michael Frick (57, finance) and Peter Laier (55, commercial vehicles) replaced Konstantin Sauer (64) and Wilhelm Rehm (65).
Another change is of particular importance for ZF: Friedrichshafen’s mayor Andreas Brand (59) announced that he would retire early at the end of October. His term of office was actually supposed to last until June 4, 2025. He “carefully weighed up” the decision with my family, said Brand, who ruled the city of 60,000 residents for 15 years.
While elsewhere the departure of a mayor would hardly cause a national stir, things are different with Brand because of his accumulation of office. Whoever governs Friedrichshafen is also the head of the Zeppelin Foundation. And the foundation owns 93.8 percent of ZF Friedrichshafen. Brand also sits on the chairmanship of the supervisory board at ZF. Ultimately, it is the mayor who ultimately decides what will happen to the third-largest supplier in the world.
Brand filled that role with great opinion. In 2017, the then ZF CEO Stefan Sommer (61) and supervisory board chairman Giorgio Behr (75) rejected him with stock market plans for the supplier.
Tough austerity measures at ZF
Whoever succeeds Brand is dependent on ZF’s success. The city of Friedrichshafen depends on the supplier. Kindergartens, hospitals and more at an extraordinary level are financed with the ZF millions. In 2018, the company distributed 195 million euros to the Zeppelin Foundation and thus to the city. Recently, significantly less money flowed, in 2023 it was 38 million euros, a year earlier there was even a zero round. Business at ZF is not going well.
Sommer’s successor Holger Klein (53) is now thinking about the stock market again. Not for the entire group, but for divisions such as belts and airbags. The CEO wants to save around 6 billion euros in the next two years alone in order to steer the heavily indebted supplier into calmer waters. ZF is plagued by liabilities of more than 11 billion euros
.
Cuts in the workforce are also inevitable. However, the works council led by Achim Dietrich (55) is bothered by the way top management operates. Dietrich and Co fear that 12,000 jobs in Germany could be lost in the next few years. In mid-January, around 3,000 employees demonstrated in front of the headquarters in Friedrichshafen. Klein remains undeterred so far: Manager Magazine recently reported exclusively
, which is dissolving another department, the start-up unit “ZF Ventures”, for which Klein no longer wants to spend any money.
Top management circles said that hardly a day goes by on Lake Constance without “two or three bombs bursting”. A statement that one can sign with a clear conscience in view of recent events.