Zeus makes management changes

In the process of reorientation being undertaken by Zeus, a German retail group, which will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hagebau with effect from 1 January 2013, the supervisory board of Hagebau has made personnel decisions affecting the future management of both Hagebau and Zeus. Kai Kächelein, director sales and marketing at Zeus, and Torsten Kreft, Zeus company secretary and divisional manager Category Management Garden, will be nominated as managing directors of Hagebau by 1 January 2013 at the latest. Torsten Kreft will in addition be appointed CEO of Zeus as successor to Thomas Heinitz, who is leaving Zeus as of 30 June 2012. This means that Thorsten Kreft, together with Kai Kächelein, is taking over responsibility for the operational management of Zeus. At the same time Hartmut Goldboom, Hagebau’s specialist trade director, and Heribert Gondert, director of finance and accounting, personnel, participating interests and partnership development, are to join the management of Zeus with effect from 1 January 2013. Michael Baumgardt, Hagebau’s director retail and director of strategy and business development at Zeus, is retiring at the end of 2012, when he will move to the supervisory board of Arena, an international buying cooperative.