Thiel management defects to TNT Logistics
TNT Logistics has announced that it has appointed three former members of the Thiel board of directors to develop its offering in central Europe. They include Gunter Thiel, the founder and former CEO of Thiel Logistik who resigned in April 2003. Other appointments by TNT include the former Chief Operating Office, Christian Fürstaller, and its Chief Finance Officer, Rodolphe Schoettel.
The resignation of Gunter Thiel followed a disagreement with the new backers of the company on the future strategy of the company. The new CEO who replaced him made it clear that growth would be put on hold in 2003 as the company focused on integration of the many acquisitions which it had made over the previous few years. From 2000 Thiel grew by over a billion euros in revenue from €449m to €1,491m although operating profits plunged from €65.1m in 2002 to just €1.6m last year.
Although the resignations will be disruptive to Thiel Logistik in the short term, the real significance of the defections is to the on-going development of TNT Logistics in Germany and Central Europe. The company has identified the region for some time as a ‘black hole’ in its portfolio. Sales revenues in Germany are only about €120m out of total European sales of €2,423m. There can be no doubt that the company intends to use the new management team to aggressively acquire and build a scale operation proportionate to the size of Europe’s largest market. As such, the appointments are a coup which could give TNT Logistics a considerable advantage over its contract logistics rivals, most of which have so far failed to make any meaningful impression in the German market.
