Change in the Executive Board of the Röchling Group
On July 1, 2025, Franz Lübbers will retire as CEO of Röchling Industrial and member of the Executive Board of the Röchling Group. For this reason, the globally active plastics processor, headquartered in Mannheim, is arranging Franz Lübbers' successor and rearranging the Group Executive Board. Franz Lübbers has been a loyal and respected employee of the company for more than 50 years; his father already worked for Röchling Industrial. He has been a member of the Group Executive Board since 2017.
Raphael Wolfram (right) will be appointed CEO of Röchling Industrial upon Franz Lübbers' retirement on July 1, 2025. He will remain Spokesman of the Executive Board of the Röchling Group. Martin Schüler will be appointed to the Executive Board of Röchling Automotive and the Röchling Group as early as November 1, 2024. He will succeed Raphael Wolfram as CEO of Röchling Automotive on February 1, 2025.
Röchling SE & Co. KG
Raphael Wolfram, CEO of Röchling Automotive and Spokesman of the Executive Board of the Röchling Group, will take over Franz Lübber’s position on July 1, 2025. He joined the company in 2019 as Automotive CFO. On January 1, 2022, he was appointed CEO of the division with the highest sales and to the Executive Board of the Röchling Group, of which he became Spokesman a few months later and which he will remain in the new set-up.
“Franz Lübbers has continued the success story of Röchling Industrial in recent years, achieving new earnings and sales records for the division in 2021 and 2022 despite adverse and challenging economic and political conditions. We are immensely grateful to him for his extraordinary achievements and highly appreciate that he will continue to support us with his extensive expertise as he hands over his responsibilities before entering into his retirement,” emphasizes Johannes Freiherr von Salmuth, Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Röchling SE & Co. KG.
Under the leadership of Franz Lübbers, the Industrial division's sales grew from 737 million EUR in 2017 to more than 1.2 billion EUR in 2023. The number of employees rose from 3,511 to 4,515 in the same period. “Röchling Industrial is the most profitable division within the Röchling Group and the backbone of our company. We in the supervisory boards are certain that Raphael Wolfram is the right person for this crucial role. We are delighted that he has agreed to assume this position and look forward to continuing our excellent collaboration as both the Spokesman of the Group Executive Board and in his new role for Röchling Industrial,” says von Salmuth.
The focus at Röchling Industrial will be to maintain market leadership in Europe, the expansion of the composites business unit and hence tapping new potentials for value creation as well as the continued international expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, particularly in Asia and North America. Sustainability and the circular economy will be enhanced further as strategic topics.
Under Raphael Wolfram’s leadership, Röchling Automotive has navigated the most challenging and transformational period in the history of the automotive and supplier industry very well. “Under him, we have set a clear and compelling strategy for the future of Röchling Automotive. This applies both to the restructuring and positioning of the business, as well as to the development of the product portfolio towards sustainable mobility,” says von Salmuth.
Due to this personnel change, Röchling Automotive will have a new CEO in Martin Schüler as of February 1, 2025. He will be appointed to the Executive Board of Röchling Automotive and the Executive Board of the Röchling Group as early as November 1, 2024. The 56-year-old mechanical engineer spent almost 20 years as CEO of HBPO, a division of the French automotive supplier OPmobility (formerly Plastic Omnium). HBPO was established as a joint venture of the automotive suppliers Hella, Behr and Plastic Omnium, and has been a wholly
owned subsidiary of OPmobility since the end of 2022. Martin Schüler was also a member of the Executive Board of HBPO’s parent company for more than five years.
Von Salmuth expresses his pleasure at having gained a proven automotive expert with more than 30 years of industry experience for Röchling in Martin Schüler: “With him, we will follow the path set under Raphael Wolfram to keep Röchling Automotive fit for the future in these challenging times for automotive suppliers.”
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