Orion Wholesale has announced that Sven Jacobsen is retiring after heading up the company for the last 30 years. This has prompted the German distributor and manufacturer to merge its purchasing and wholesaling divisions under the leadership of Hans-Jürgen Bähr, who will be chief product officer (CPO) and chief sales officer B2B (CSO). The merger of these divisions is said to be in reaction to recent changes in the market, and there will also be further restructuring in order to meet today’s requirements.
Sven Jacobsen has been associated with the Orion group for almost half his life, starting in a small internal sales department. “That was a lovely and intense time,” said Jacobsen, “and it doesn’t feel like work when what you’re doing is fun. However, now is the right time to step down from my active role after 30 years at Orion with fantastic colleagues in one of the most interesting industries in the world. I will miss the trade fairs and the numerous trips but above all, I will miss the contact with the customers – but I am looking forward to what is to come, and I know that it’s going in the right direction both for me personally and for Orion.”
Orion managing director Maike Rotermund commented: “Sven has had a strong influence on Orion and our wholesale – both personally and professionally. I am very grateful to him for that. We would have loved to celebrate his departure all together during a barbeque but Corona has unfortunately thrown a spanner in the works. But we’ll make up for that as soon as we can – and then with the whole team.”
New CPO and CSO Hans-Jürgen Bähr is already familiar with the company: next year the qualified business economist will have been part of the Orion team for 25 years, 20 of which he spent as purchasing manager. “It was time to bridge the gap between our purchasing department and wholesale department,” he said. “This is the only way that a holistic product management is possible for us in the long term – from the creation of ideas and the product development right up to marketing and sales”.
Hans-Jürgen Bähr sees the digitalisation of sales as a major task and opportunity for the future – in order to improve the service for the customers and also to conquer new markets and be more broadly positioned internationally. “Not only will we analyse, optimise, and significantly tailor our product portfolio to our customers’ needs, but we’ll also enter into new, promising partnerships in the industry,” he said.
In other moves, Mark Boderius will now become head of purchase and product development, Hauke Christiansen will become head of wholesale operations, and Björn Radcke will become head of sales and marketing B2B.
[Pictured from left to right: Hans-Jürgen Bähr, Mark Boderius, Sven Jacobsen, Hauke Christiansen, and Björn Radcke]
