Former employer president Dieter Hundt.
Image: dpa
Well-dressed manager, football fan, social partner: Dieter Hundt has always known how to bring opposites together. He was one of the most influential entrepreneurs and is now selling the business to China.
The pension limit is not a benchmark for entrepreneurs. Especially not for Dieter Hundt, who was once one of the most influential men in the country as employer president and political voice in business. In his family business, the automotive supplier Allgaier GmbH based in Uhingen east of Stuttgart, the 83-year-old Swabian was actively involved as Chairman of the Supervisory Board until the very end. In recent years, however, entrepreneurial life has been particularly demanding for the mechanical engineer with a doctorate: In addition to dealing with transformation and the pandemic, one’s own successor also had to be clarified – which obviously wasn’t easy.
Hundt, whose father once worked as an employee at Allgaier, was always a medium-sized company through and through. Since this week, a decision has been made that draws attention: the traditional company in the Mercedes-Benz catchment area, which has 1700 employees and whose core competencies include sheet metal forming, is to be sold to a Chinese investor. “We decided to sell in the family because no relative was available for a management position in the company,” Hundt told the F.A.Z. on the sidelines of an event in Stuttgart.